The taskforce is focussing on 20 migration agents with suspected links to the rorting,and one federal government licensed agent has already been issued a notice that the Office of the Migration Agents Regulation Agency will ban him from providing migration advice.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil haspromised major reform to the system,and said on Friday the new taskforce was being staffed by investigators and regulatory officials aiming to reduce rampant exploitation of the migration system.
“Its goal is to disrupt thenetworks exposed by theTrafficked series. The taskforce includes intelligence and compliance teams to assist with an investigation into the vulnerabilities of the migration system,” O’Neil said.
The minister said that after years of neglect by the former Coalition government,Labor was now acting. The Office of the Migration Agents Regulation Agency was working closely with the new taskforce.
TheTrafficked series cast a light on visa rorting,sex trafficking and foreign worker exploitation in Australia.
Among the reports was that of a human trafficking boss who enteredAustralia in 2014 and built a criminal underground sex empire despite having previously been jailed in the UK for similar offending.