‘Step up’ face data checks at borders

Australia’s immigration watchdog has warned the government that greater use of biometric facial recognition technology is needed.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: Kym Smith

Australia’s immigration watchdog has warned the Morrison government that greater use of biometric facial recognition technology and matching of data held by friendly nations and security partners is needed to counter a heightened vulnerability to terrorism and organised crime.

In a detailed brief handed to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton after the May election, the Department of Home Affairs laid out a case for upgrading its capabilities in biometric analysis, warning that the immigration program was under significant pressure.

The department argued strongly for an overhaul of its ­information technology infrastructure, saying the system was unable to cope with demand. It said the department’s legacy IT systems were “ageing and failing”.

“Current systems were designed and built to accommodate much smaller volumes and a less sophisticated risk environment,” Home Affairs said.

The brief, obtained by The Australian under Freedom of Information laws, was issued as the government weathered criticism of its move to outsource some functions of the nation’s visa-­processing system. However, in its brief the department made clear the system’s overhaul was driven by the need to respond to “increasingly agile and sophisticated transnational terrorism and organised crime actors seeking to exploit vulnerabilities”.

It is the first incoming government brief prepared by the revamped Home Affairs — a super portfolio created last year bringing together the previous Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Border Force, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Sec­urity Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac).

The brief said Australia faced an environment where terrorist methodologies, targets and tactics continued to evolve, drug importation referrals were up 300 per cent since 2013-14 and the country was “an increasingly ­important espionage target for foreign intelligence services”.

“Threats to Australia’s social cohesion and our nation’s security are also posed by those seeking to incite violence,” Home Affairs said in the brief.

It said it wanted to expand options for biometric collection of information, insisting its use had helped to drive detection of and response to thousands of cases of visa and identity fraud, as well as “serious criminality and security concerns”.

People applying for a visa to Australia from 46 countries will have a photo of their face taken and all of their fingertips recorded on a digital finger scanner.

The millions of biometrics collected are checked against existing data holdings and other databases held by Australia’s M5 immigration partners Canada, New Zealand, Britain and the US.

The brief predicts visa appli­cations by those wanting to live, work and holiday in Australia will continue to increase, topping 13 million by 2026, up from 10 million in 2018-19.

“Rising volumes of visa ­appli­cations, changing risk profiles for national security, criminality and fraud risks, complexity of the visa framework and reliance on aged and manual processing systems has created significant pressure on the immigration program,” Home Affairs says.

Mr Dutton did not respond on Thursday to questions from The Australian about the Home ­Affairs recommendations. A spokes­man for the department said fingerprints and facial images were collected for “identity-­confirmation purposes” and it would continue to use biometrics to “strengthen the Australian government’s ability to maintain ­effective border controls, while ­allowing people to move seamlessly and efficiently across the ­border”.

“The department will continue to collect biometric data to establish the identity of individuals through the visa and citizenship application process, and in so doing successfully detects and responds to cases of visa and identity fraud,” the spokesman said.

In its brief to the minister, the department revealed its refusal rate for visas was increasing, a development it put down to better information being made available.

“Heightened levels of risk and caseload fraud have been a feature across most programs and have led to an increase in refusal decisions,” the brief said.

“Since 2015-16 to 2017-18, the average refusal rate across the temporary and permanent visa programs has increased from 2.5 per cent to 3.3 per cent, which equates to 96,724 more applicants being refused.

“In the year to 30 April, 2019, the refusal rate across programs was tracking at 3.8 per cent. This has involved a significant and commensurate increase in work effort and time for the department to appropriately assess and decide applications.”

It also expressed a concern to protect the more than $2bn annual revenue that came from the visa application system.

The department has been looking to overhaul visa processing since 2017 but an October deadline for a decision on outsourcing functions to the private sector passed without announcement.

An earlier request for a tender document outlined the department’s vision for what it termed a global digital platform, featuring “fully digital, largely automated visa application processes that can be completed anywhere, on any device, and in the native language of the applicant, (and) enhance Australia’s attractiveness to ­tourists, students and skilled ­migrants”.

In July, it said it was “reforming and modernising our IT systems and bring(ing) service standards up to meet modern expectations of convenience, accessibility and quality”.

On Thursday, a department spokesman said strict probity and confidentiality arrangements were being observed but did not answer questions about when the successful tenderer would be announced.

“The tender documents explicitly provide that any decision to enter into an agreement with a provider of the global digital platform is subject to further government decision-making at the conclusion of the department’s evaluation process,” he said.

Labor has sharply criticised the plan, saying it was effectively privatising visa processing.

Over the past decade, the department has increased its use of biometric technology extensively at SmartGates in airports but also wants to expand use of the technology at visa application centres in Australia and 43 other countries.

“Immigration and citizenship programs are central to the economic prosperity, security and safety of Australia.

“They deliver sig­nifi­cant economic benefits through supporting tourism, international education and attracting global talent. However, the service delivery model and infrastructure supporting these programs is failing. In response, the department has commenced service delivery reform to transform the underpinning risk and service delivery models.”