The centre of Melbourne will be swamped with police on Friday and Saturday night in a huge multi-agency operation to target everything from visa fraud to antisocial behaviour.

Australian border force, police, and transport officers will take up positions at various locations around the CBD and will be “speaking with any individual we cross paths with”, said ABF regional commander, Don Smith.

“You need to be aware of the conditions of your visa; if you commit visa fraud you should know it’s only a matter of time before you’re caught out,” he said in a statement.

Human rights advocates said the operation – codenamed “Operation Fortitude” – raised fears of police using racial profiling to justify stopping people and that it risked a “militarisation” of the immigration system.

More details of the operation were expected at a press conference on Friday afternoon.



In July, the Australian customs and border protection merged with the department of immigration and border protection and launched the Australian border force, whose officers have substantially greater powers than either customs or immigration officials. They are permitted to carry guns and have powers to detain.

Under the Migration Act, an authorised officer can ask for information from someone the officer “knows or reasonably suspects is a non-citizen”.



The information can include evidence of being a lawful non-citizen and personal identity papers. The person must comply with the request within a time period “specified by the officer”.

If the officer “knows or reasonably suspects” the person is an unlawful non-citizen the officer must detain that person.



But the human rights barrister, Julian Burnside, said he was not aware of anything in the Border Force Act which allowed officers to ask people to produce their visa papers on the spot.

A spokesperson from the department confirmed there was no requirement for those with a visa to carry papers on them, but that the department could check those details on the spot electronically.

Burnside said he was concerned how the officers would be targeting those suspected of overstaying their visa.

“The alternative is then using racial profiling, which is just extraordinary,” Burnside said.

“And for what? To try to find the less than one tenth of a percent of the population who they suspect have overstayed? They will be heavily into racial profiling and that means looking for people who appear foreign and who don’t speak English well. Frankly, I think that is alarming.”

He described the Australian border force as a quasi-military operation who would likely use heavy-handed measures to get commuters to comply with their requests for information if necessary.

“The benefit to society of these sorts of approaches seems to me to be much much less than the damage to which it does to a society by instilling fear,” he said. “I don’t want to live in a community where you walk around with the fear that people will stop you with a threat you’ll be jailed or mishandled if you don’t comply.”

Katie Robertson, an associate in the social justice practice of Maurice Blackburn, agreed with Burnside that the operation reflected a “clear militarisation of the department of immigration”.

“Our firm will be watching very closely who the officers end up targeting this weekend,” she said.



“Why are they using resources for this, instead of getting on with processing the 30,000 people in the Australian community awaiting processing for a visa? They should be using their resources and time more productively.”

Robertson described it as an unnecessary exercise in intimidation. “We are really concerned that racial profiling is likely to take place.”

Adam Bandt, the federal Greens member for Melbourne, was concerned over the impact on the city’s reputation as an attractive city for holiday makers. “Melbourne shouldn’t be a place where a government officer can stop you in the street and demand to see your papers because you’re suspected of being a foreigner,” he said.

An Australian border force spokesman denied any racial profiling would take place.



“This is not a new activity; immigration officers regularly conducted compliance activity to locate and detain individuals residing in Australia illegally in the past and the ABF is continuing this work,” he said. “The Australian border force does not target of the basis of race, religion, or ethnicity.”

Victoria’s police minister, Wade Noonan, has been asked for comment on whether the state government supported the operation or if any consultation took place.

Meanwhile Victoria police will be out with detection dogs, booze buses and automated number plate recognition vehicles as part of the Friday and Saturday night operation.



Metro Trains, Yarra Trams, the sheriff’s office and the Taxi Services Commission will also be involved.

“For those of you who choose to break the rules expect to be caught by the Operation Fortitude team,” transit and public safety command acting superintendent, Campbell Mill, said in a statement.

“There is a lot of truth to the saying that there is strength in numbers,” he said.



“From a policing perspective we will have protective services officers, passive alert detection dogs, police, booze buses and automated number plate recognition vehicles deployed this Friday and Saturday night.”



It marks the first time border force staff have joined with transport and enforcement agencies to target crime in the CBD.