You just shake your head: Dutton

Immigration Minister frustrated by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal overturning visas cancelled by his department.

Peter Dutton has spoken out about Immigration Department visa rulings overturned by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, saying some ‘infuriating’ cases make you ‘shake your head’.

Six Iranian boatpeople were caught holidaying in their homeland after lying on their visa applications about fearing for their lives if they had to return, it was revealed today. Yet the AAT stopped the Immigration Minister from deporting them.

This follows a report 39 per cent of Mr Dutton’s decisions or those by delegates have been overturned by the AAT in the past year.

Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton.

While refusing to comment on this particular instance, Mr Dutton, who is reviewing the circumstances, said such cases were “infuriating”.

“There are many cases that I look at where, on the facts available to me, you shake your head,” he told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell.

“People who are being slaughtered in the Middle East now that we would want to give protection to, they’re the ones being displaced by people who are seeking a better economic outcome.”

Australia, bound by international conventions, can’t send people back to a country where they face persecution.

Mr Dutton said Iran, in particular, won’t take people back unless they return voluntarily.

“That’s the dilemma - and the rub against that, of course, is that we don’t have indefinite detention.”

The federal government has deported between 500 and 600 people over the past year, including 136 bikies in the past 18 months.

Outlaw motorcycle gang members have been the top targets, with sexual offenders also a priority.

Six people involved in Melbourne’s Apex gangs have had their visas cancelled, with seven others under review.

“These are serious offenders - people who have committed rapes, people who have committed armed robberies,” Mr Dutton said.

Mr Dutton admitted to being frustrated with the lengthy and costly appeals process. He suggested the independent tribunal, whose members are appointed by the government of the day, is influenced by politics.

The government has not renewed the tenure of some members who were appointed during the Rudd-Gillard years, and made some fresh appointments. “So the rejection rate will change over time,” Mr Dutton said.

‘Refugees’ return for holidays

Documents seen by Melbourne’s Herald Sun reveal that the Iranians caught holidaying in their homeland — who paid people-smugglers to get to Australia — were given protection visas after claiming their lives would be in danger if they returned to Iran. But soon after being granted Australian protection visas to live in Sydney and Melbourne, the Iranians had no hesitation in returning to the country from which they were supposedly fleeing.

The visas were cancelled after the Immigration Department ­discovered they voluntarily returned to Iran and later came back to Australia. The documents reveal one person made three ­return trips to Iran after getting his Australian visa. This included a trip to get married under Islamic law, an event conducted by the Iranian authorities he was supposedly terrified of.

Another claimed to be on an Iranian wanted list, but the Immigration Department later discovered the person was an economic migrant rather than a genuine refugee. A couple who arrived by boat claimed to have no identification documents and that they would be killed if they returned to Iran, but later voluntarily travelled to Iran and back to Australia on valid Iranian passports.

And two Iranian family members claimed to be stateless with no identity documents — a lie discovered when another family member applied to join them in Australia and provided documents to show all were Iranian citizens who were in no danger of being persecuted.

The revelations will put further pressure on the AAT, already under fire for overturning thousands of visa decisions made by Mr Dutton or his delegate in the past year.

When asked yesterday about the Iranians having their visas reinstated by the AAT, a spokesman for Mr Dutton told the Herald Sun he was considering the next step. “The minister has the power to set aside AAT decisions,” the spokesman said.

Despite the AAT saying it was satisfied the Iranian asylum-seekers lied to Australian authorities about the dangers they faced if they were sent back to Iran, it still overturned the decisions by the minister. It was revealed last week that the AAT had overturned 4389 visa decisions made by Mr Dutton or his delegate in the past year.

AAP