Team features

immigration team

The Immigration Team is located in the National Office in Canberra. The Team is supervised by a Senior Assistant Ombudsman and comprises three senior staff who are experienced in dealing with a range of complex cases and major investigations.

Complaints come in to all eight offices of the Commonwealth Ombudsman and are generally dealt with by the office in which the complaint is received. Highly complex complaints are referred to the Immigration Team. The role of the Team is to provide advice to other investigation officers on immigration matters, to monitor complaint trends and to identify systemic issues arising out of complaints about the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA).

As well as dealing with complaints in relation to DIMIA, the Immigration Team deals with complaints relating to the Migration Agents Registration Authority, the Migration Review Tribunal and the Refugee Review Tribunal. The majority of the work of the Team relates to DIMIA. The most common areas of concern are decisions made on permanent visa applications for overseas family members or spouses and on temporary visa applications for students and tourists. Complaints from detainees in immigration detention facilities most commonly relate to access to medical services, property that was allegedly lost or stolen and incidents of assault, both by detention facility staff and by other detainees.

A key responsibility of the Team is liaison with DIMIA officers on a regular basis with the aim of improving communication and cooperation between the two agencies. This approach has been effective, with the Team regularly being asked by DIMIA to provide input into draft procedures and policies, particularly in relation to detention facilities. During the past year, the Team worked with DIMIA on a major investigation of an incident at the Port Hedland facility. An issue being taken up by the Team in liaison with DIMIA is more effective internal complaint handling in DIMIA, with a view to reducing the number of complaints about DIMIA and ensuring more efficient handling of complaints.

Further information in Chapter 5.