Australia to Crack Down on Migration Agents with Tough Regulations

A day after an Indian journalist was attacked for exposing scams in migration and admission of overseas students in Australian, including those from India, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has said that the government would crack down on scams and will tighten regulation on migration agents.

Smith said that immigration and education authorities would investigate the scams about ripping off foreign students and culprits would be dealt with “no tolerance”.

Smith, speaking from Singapore, told ABC channel, “Of course it’s very concerning on both fronts.”

“On the migration front, when we were in Opposition we did express significant concerns about the regulation of migration agents, and as a consequence we’ve recently seen a migration regulatory authority come into existence to regulate that industry better,” Smith said.

“But any of these abuses, of course, we won’t tolerate and don’t tolerate. And the cracking down, so far as the migration agents’ regulatory arrangements are concerned, will assist in that process,” he said.