People smugglers selling asylum seekers passports and visas for entry to Australia by plane

Updated

People smugglers are offering asylum seekers passports and Australian visas for entry to Australia by plane.

An investigation by the ABC's Four Corners program has revealed evidence that people smugglers are selling the travel documents for up to $16,000.

The passports and visas could enable asylum seekers to enter Australia via commercial airline flights rather than by fishing boats.

In a series of meetings in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur late last week, an Iraqi national known as Abu Tarek was secretly filmed offering the travel documents to potential customers.

"An Australian visa, everything is proper - genuine passport, genuine visa," Mr Tarek told them.

"They bring it straight from the embassy complete and you fly in your name."

He claimed one of his customers had recently entered Australia using a visa and a passport issued by the Gulf state of Bahrain, and had applied for asylum at an Australian airport.

When the 36-year-old Iraqi, whose real name is Hakim Salga, was asked if many other people had already used the black-market documents, he replied: "Yes, to Australia, New Zealand, lots of people have arrived there," using passports issued by Bahrain and Oman.

The people smuggler advises his customers to use the passports and visas to board the plane then to tear up the passport before arriving in Australia.

Mr Tarek claimed to be selling two types of Australian visa: holiday visas, and transit visas for flights going on to New Zealand.

The investigation further revealed that the syndicate of smugglers has targeted Lebanese asylum seekers from the troubled north of the country, which borders Syria.

According to figures from the Department of Immigration, the number of Lebanese applying for asylum at Australian airports has jumped from 182 to 327 in the past year.

Locals confirmed that more than 200 people from the village of Qabeit had paid people smugglers to send them to Australia by plane and by boat.

Responding to the Four Corners report, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said: "If there are any allegations, of course, we would follow them up but I have great confidence in the integrity of the Australian passport system."

Operation being run from behind bars

The Four Corners investigation identified Iraqi man Abu Saleh, jailed for the stabbing death of a man in a Jakarta nightclub, as being a part of the same syndicate.

Saleh, also known as Hussain Hamid Aboudi, is running a people smuggling operation from inside prison in Jakarta - with the help of prison authorities.

Saleh organised the boat which sank in late September off the coast of Java, killing 44, including 18 children.

The organisation and deals for the doomed trip were carried out from inside the prison.

Lebanese asylum seeker Abdullah al Qisi says he was escorted by police into the prison where he met Saleh.

"I found Abu Saleh. He was like a king. He always have six seven phones and like $100,000 on the table."

The ABC’s Jakarta Bureau has been told that Indonesian police are aware of Saleh’s alleged links to the deadly sinking.

A senior Indonesian police source has confirmed they are investigating Saleh but says efforts have been hampered by corrupt prison officials.

"He has a very good alibi as he is in prison," said the source, who does not wish to be named.

"Evidence is hard to get because Abu Saleh has a strong alibi, as he is in prison."

The police source asked for any evidence the ABC has about Saleh's involvement in smuggling.

Topics: crime, law-crime-and-justice, refugees, immigration, community-and-society, australia, iraq, malaysia, lebanon

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