Rwandan spies in Australia are informing on refugees from the east African nation, according to a local media investigation.

The revelation comes as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) this weekend warned that interference from foreign agents had reached an “unprecedented scale”.

The Australia Broadcasting Corpropation (ABC) uncovered a covert recording of an alleged Rwandan spy filmed in a carpark in Queensland late last year.

The man can be heard detailing how the Rwandan government runs secret missions from its embassies and high commissions.

One Rwandan refugee and government critic told the broadcaster he had been threatened by a countryman upon his arrival in Australia. He said Queensland police urged him to stay out of south Brisbane, where they believed Rwandan operatives worked.

The man further claimed that spies were planted in the country on student visas, as these were easier to obtain.

A government advisor on African-Australian relations, Dr Nadine Shema, told the broadcaster she warned Canberra of the rising threat of intimidation of Rwandan dissenters.

ABC also found evidence that then foreign-minister Julie Bishop had been warned in 2017 that the Rwandan High Commissioner to Singapore had threatened to kill a Rwanda-born resident of New South Wales.