Record number of criminals being pulled off Australia-bound flights

THE number of criminals, illegal immigrants and suspected terrorists kicked off flights bound for Australia has skyrocketed by 300 per cent, as Border Force works with airlines to stop them.

EXCLUSIVE

THE number of criminals, illegal immigrants and suspected terrorists kicked off flights bound for Australia has skyrocketed by 300 per cent, as Border Force officials work with airlines such as Qantas and Emirates to keep Australians safe.

A whopping 555 individuals were booted off flights in 2017-18, up 308 per cent from the 136 people “offloaded” from planes to Australia the year before.

Some of the passengers taken off flights because they posed a “risk to the border” included individuals trying to enter the country illegally to work or live, as well as suspected criminals and others who were a national security concern, News Corp understands.

Hundreds of other passengers with fraudulent documents have also been stopped before they could even board flights, including one Nigerian woman who tried to get to Melbourne twice in one week from Abu Dhabi by listing a different nationality.

In another case, a Chinese man was stopped from travelling to Melbourne on a fraudulently obtained tourist visa by an Australian Border Force Airline Liaison Officer who used facial matching technology to identify that he wasn’t the person who had been granted the visa.

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It’s estimated taxpayers would have been forced to fork out $15 million for authorities to detain and eventually deport the 205 people with fraudulent documents if they hadn’t been stopped from entering Australia.

Another 4584 travellers were stopped at airports and refused entry when they reached Australia in 2017-18.

The ABF attributes the massive increase in the number of passengers booted off flights to ALOs working more closely with airlines, resulting in more awareness among airline staff of potential threats.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told News Corp ALOs were “crucial” to protecting Australia’s borders.

“In this day and age, you have to know who is coming across your borders and being able to stop people of concern before they even board a flight is vital in that defence,” he said.

ABF Strategic Border Command Assistant Commissioner Erin Dale agreed ALOs played a critical role in keeping “unscrupulous individuals” out of Australia.

“We know there are many foreign nationals who attempt to enter Australia illegally, either to work, live or engage in criminal activity and even activities of national security concern,” she said.

Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton holding a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

“Knowing who is coming into our country is vital and protecting the integrity of Australia’s migration system is an operational priority for the ABF.”

The “offloaded” passengers all held genuine documents but were taken off flights after ALOs determined that they posed a risk to the Australian border, or there was suspicion that they would be involved in criminal activity or because their true intentions for travel didn’t match their visa type.

Among the travellers who were refused entry because they used fake documents were:

• A Brunei resident headed to the Gold Cost who was stopped in Kuala Lumpur after an ALO spotted that he had lied about his nationality to gain an a travel permit;

• An Afghan national also stopped in Kuala Lumpur for using a fraudulently altered Italian passport, driver’s license and medical card;

• Two Nigerian nationals who were stopped in Bangkok on their way to Sydney. Both passengers had arrived in Thailand from Nigeria via Turkey and it was confirmed both had provided false information during their visa application;

• Three Chinese men were stopped from heading to Melbourne after it was found they had fraudulent visa grant notices, and on the same day another Chinese man was stopped from traveling to Sydney for using a fraudulently altered passport and travel history.

ALOs are stationed in 19 airports overseas. The government allocated $6.9 million in the May budget for the ALOs to continue their work for another two years.

Originally published as Record number of criminals being pulled off Australia-bound flights