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Manus Island asylum seekers allegedly marrying workers for Australian spousal visas

Xinhua, November 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Asylum seekers at Manus Island in Papua New Guinea have reportedly been engaged in sham marriages with several detention centre workers in return for the much coveted Australian spousal visas, News Corp reported on Tuesday.

As many as 10 asylum seekers from Iran and Iraq were said to have been in relationship with several staff of the detention centres since the centre was opened in 2012 with only a handful turning out to be genuine unions.

The relationships were understood to involve asylum seekers and workers contracted to the centre by Sydney-based company BroadSpectrum and volunteers from non-government organisations.

The relationship with the staff came despite many of these asylum seekers have already collected cash incentives of up to 10,000 thousand Australian dollars (7,700 thousand U.S. dollars) given to them by the Australian government to return to their country of origin.

Last week, the Australian federal government announced that those who employed the use of illegal people smugglers to make their way to Australia will never be allowed into the country, even as a tourists.

The lifetime ban which is set to be tabled in Parliament this week, will extend to those who have been sent to Australian detention centres on Nauru or Manus Island since July 19, 2013.

However, the laws will not affect children.

Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has hinted that this lifetime ban would also include "sham" marriage arrangements.

"I'm not going to allow an arrangement where people believe it's OK to enter into what are essentially sham relationships to come to Australia on a spouse visa or through some other means," he reportedly said.

Xinhua calls to BroadSpectrum, the company in charge of managing Nauru and Manus Island detention facilities, catering, maintenance, recreation and educational activities, were unanswered.

According to Melbourne-based organisation Asylum Insight, there are currently 1,602 asylum seekers living in Nauru, Manus Island and Christmas Island. Enditem