Police out to smash Fiji

man smuggling' racket

By staff reporter JOHN CARTER

Australian Commonwealth Police are staging a massive crack down on illegal immigrants from the Islands. Ihey are following a trail which may uncover a “man smuggling” racket operating between Fiji and Australia.

The police believe there are scores of Fiji-born Indians on the loose in Sydney and other cities after gaining illegal entry. The numbers are mounting so steadily that police suspect there could be an under ground organisation, a clearing house, for these illegal immigrants— that their entry is being master-minded, for cash, by others who are in Australia on legal visas.

Both the police and the Immigration Department were pleased in May when one Fiji national, Dewan Chand, was picked up on board ship between Brisbane and Sydney while attempting to enter the country on a fake passport. They believe that his gaol sentence of three months will act as a warning to others planning to “gate crash”.

But Chand’s method of entry was not along the lines of the main stream of illegal immigrants, who are using more subtle methods. One racket is being worked through the airlines by young Fiji-Indians able to afford a return air ticket from Fiji to Noumea via Sydney.

The cheapest and shortest route from Fiji to Noumea is, of course, the direct route, but these travellers are not interested in Noumea.

They choose a plane from Nadi to Sydney which has no immediate connection in Sydney with the service on to Noumea. They are then entitled to a 72-hour transit visa at Sydney Airport. Armed with that, they leave the airport and simply vanish.

Until recently there has been no check on whether transit visa passengers have caught their aircraft. In any case, once a determined passenger leaves the airport, he’s in the country for good unless he does something to draw attention to his existence. Police believe many of these “visitors” have had friends to meet then, find them accom modation and ultimately find them a job. Probably all for a fee.

This method of entry is now closed. Immigration officials are making detailed checks of Islanders on transit visas.

Officials admit, however, that their action in close-questioning plane passengers in transit can be misconstrued.

One officer said, “We might be accused of carrying out a racial policy, but it’s nothing like that. All we are interested in is stopping illegal entry, from anywhere.” One couple picked up, by accident, in Sydney in the middle of May were found to have been in Australia since January and both had jobs in a factory.

Another racket is being worked through the cruise ships. Would-be illegal immigrants are booking cabins in ships calling at Australian and New Zealand ports.

When the ship arrives at one of the ports, the illegal immigrant goes ashore for a look around. He doesn’t come back.

The attention of the Fiji Police has been drawn to the rackets.

The Fiji Commissioner of Police, Mr. R. T. M. Henry, said on May 17 that he had been in touch with police in Sydney over the use of false passports by people of Fiji citizenship to gain entry into Australia.

As well as imprisonment in Australia, illegal immigrants could face more trouble from the law when returning to Fiji. When leaving Fiji, a passenger has to fill up an embarkation form for the Immigration Department, and there are penalties for false entry.

There’s another interesting facet to this business of illegal immigrants which is giving headaches to police in Australia and New Zealand.

Some of Australia’s criminal fraternity have welcomed the arrange ment between Australia and NZ whereby passports are not needed for entry from one country to another. You don’t have to give your correct name to buy an airline ticket.

The crooks are flying to New Zealand for the weekend, lifting jewellery or some other portable valuables, and are back in town by Monday!