The Commonwealth and Immigration Ombudsman, Prof. John McMillan, released today a report into his investigation of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs’ (DIMA) management of Mrs Aziza Agha’s case.

Mrs Agha was a frail, aged visitor from Lebanon who in August 2005 died shortly after attending a medical examination requested by DIMA. Claims were made in the media that Mrs Agha’s treating general practitioner had alleged that she died as a result of ‘harassment’ by DIMA.

The Ombudsman undertook the investigation following a request by the Secretary of DIMA in August 2005 to investigate the administrative actions of the Department in this case.

Prof. McMillan said that he had found no evidence to support a conclusion that the actions of DIMA officers in this case constituted ‘harassment’.

The Ombudsman did however identify a number of administrative deficiencies relating to the processes followed by the Department in handling Mrs Agha’s case:

• repeated failure to identify, or give adequate consideration to, Mrs Agha’s circumstances and in particular the urgency attaching to her situation
• limited guidance to, and supervision of, officers in the exercise of their delegations under the Migration Act 1958
• repeated failure to adhere to policy and procedural directions laid down for the handling of cases such as Mrs Agha’s
• inadequate recording keeping.

Prof. McMillan stated that in his view none of the errors or deficiencies identified in DIMA’s handling of the case were, on their own, of major concern. However, the cumulative effect of these errors and deficiencies amounted to an unnecessarily stressful situation for Mrs Agha and her family. ‘The evidence suggests that many of these deficiencies are not confined to Mrs Agha’s case and are systemic in nature’, Prof. McMillan said.

The Ombudsman highlighted areas where DIMA’s procedures may require review. These include:

• management of health assessments at overseas posts for elderly persons seeking to travel to Australia
• provision of advice to visitors about any conditions relevant to the visa granted
• procedures for deciding on waiver of Condition 8503 on medical grounds, in particular, the need to contact the overseas post
• routine recording of time and date of receipt of documents in DIMA offices
• procedures for identifying matters that require urgent attention
• procedures for issuing of bridging visas
• greater clarity in criteria and procedures for assessing the health of elderly persons, especially the distinction between ‘fit to travel’ and ‘fit to depart’
• the level at which delegations are exercised by DIMA staff, the degree of training, guidance and supervision of delegates, and procedures for identifying and escalating ‘problem’ cases
• general record keeping procedures.

The Department has accepted all of the recommendations. ‘I am pleased with the constructive response from DIMA’, Prof. McMillan said. ‘My office will be monitoring implementation of the recommendations and I have asked for a formal progress report against each of them within six months.’

The report is published in an abridged form because of the amount of personal detail in the report. The abridged report is available at www.ombudsman.gov.au.

Date of release: 19 April 2006