Australian travel bans would cover study and research

People from specified countries could be banned from visiting Australia for almost any purpose, including study or research, under the latest politically fuelled crackdown on migration.

A bill being rushed through parliament would give the immigration minister the power to blacklist nationalities by designating their homelands as “removal concern countries”. Officials would not be able to consider visa applications from these countries while the designations remained in force.

The proposal is part of a broader crackdown on visitors whose “lawful” time in Australia has expired and who fail to “cooperate” with efforts to deport them. The bill’s headline measure is a mandatory sentence of up to five years’ imprisonment and fines of up to A$93,900 (£48,600).

This follows a High Court ruling of last November, which banned the government from holding people in immigration detention when there was no real prospect of deporting them. The government has since endured a political firestorm for releasing about 150 detainees, many of whom had records for violent or sexual crimes. Scores more may be released in coming weeks.

The blacklisting proposal appears to be an attempt to change the behaviour of governments that routinely refuse to accept their nationals back after unsuccessful efforts to secure asylum in Australia.

Daniel Ghezelbash, deputy director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney, said this ploy was unlikely to work with governments that tended not to prioritise the “best interests” of their citizens.

“Returns are a very delicate matter, usually handled through quiet diplomacy,” he said. “Taking the stick approach…could backfire and lead to tit-for-tat visa sanctions.”

Dr Ghezelbash said the bill was among “the most draconian laws we’ve seen put before the parliament in the last decade”, criminalising people who resisted efforts to send them back to countries where they faced persecution. The proposed travel bans were “unprecedented”, potentially preventing millions from holidaying, working or studying in Australia because of the actions of their “autocratic” governments.

The bill was introduced into the House of Representatives on 26 March and passed immediately with opposition support, despite objections that it was being rushed for no obvious reason. It was due to be introduced into the Senate the following day, but the opposition and Greens forced its referral to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, which has been given until 7 May to report back to the senate.

Its passage then could mean more disappointment for would-be students from Iran, whose government is notorious for refusing to accept nationals facing deportation from the West. Hundreds of Iranian doctoral candidates have endured waits of up to three years for resolution of their Australian visa applications, due to delays thought to be sparked by security concerns.

International education operatives say students at other levels are now facing visa processing delays amid changes to eligibility criteria. A “genuine student” test and increased English language requirements came into force on 23 March.

The delays have reportedly forced thousands of international students to defer their courses. The numbers are hard to quantify because a government web page, which monitors visa processing timeframes, no longer functions properly after it was changed in August 2022.

“Agents are telling students, ‘Don’t apply right now – wait until semester two,’” former Austrade international education head Melissa Banks told a University of Melbourne seminar. “I think they’re actually going to have to wait longer.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com