Who decides who comes to Australia?

VFS and UKVisas were found to be in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998, where the British Foreign Office was required to review its relationship with VFS Global (http://www.ico.org.uk/upload/documents/pressreleases/2007/fco_undertaking_131107.pdf).

Since the incident reported above, several governments have also been critical of VFS Global's work and raised concerns over security. The executive director of the Chinese Canadian Council Victor Wong stated that "There's the accountability issue, the privacy issue and why are we outsourcing to a for-profit entity something that belongs in the security mandate?" Further Liam Clifford of global Visas, a migration advice company, told The Sunday Telegraph: "Once you put this work in the hands of private companies overseas, you no longer have the same protection." (http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2008/06/16/private_firms_work_with_visas_raises_concerns.html).

The VFS-Snowden Link?

The London based VFS Global is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Kuoni Group, a public-listed company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. What makes VFS interesting is that the chairman of the parent company, Henning Boysenwas closely involved with Booz, Allan & Hamilton in the area of predictive intelligence, the same company that Edward Snowden worked for. Like Booz, Allan & Hamilton, WFS Global almost solely acts as a contractor for Government in data collection services. Two other directors were previously involved with Boston Consulting Group which has long been suspected of having close links with the US intelligence community (http://www.scoreboard-canada.com/babylon-christi.htm).

Taking a straw-pole outside VFS offices and in airports over the last month, the new visa application process is causing great frustration among applicants, particularly at a time when Australian tourism is being promoted.

An overzealous scrutiny by the Australian Immigration Department is delaying the decision making process and forcing applicants to take medical tests for example, which appear to be unreasonable in some cases for the granting of straight forward tourist visas. This alone in many legal jurisdictions would be enough grounds to warrant corruption investigations, due to potential over and unnecessary use of service providers.

A disguised statistical discrimination system used by Australian Immigration justifies selective scrutiny of certain national, ethnic, and demographic groups on the basis of historical risk. This discrimination is irritating and even humiliating many potential bone-fide tourists in the department's overzealous pursuit of screening applicants for a small percentage of potential over-stayers.

The biggest danger however is that information supplied for the sole purpose of requesting a visa, could be disseminated and used beyond the purpose it was provided. VFS Global's track record, and the connections of the parent company's directors with organizations like with Booz, Allan & Hamilton, give great reason for concern.

Most importantly, Government data collection agencies seen to have integrity issues in matters of data collection, particularly in the light of the Snowden allegations. The Australian Government needs to answer many questions on the appointment of VFS Global as its service provider partner in the interests of transparency.