A 36-year-old Chinese national travelling on a Canadian passport has been refused entry to Australia after Australian Border Force (ABF) officers found medical equipment used to perform beauty treatments in his luggage.
About 40 syringes, needle tips and a variety of beauty treatments that are primarily injected into the skin were located during a baggage examination at Melbourne Airport on Friday 16 March 2018.
While the materials are not prohibited items, ABF officers suspected the 36-year-old was planning to perform unlicensed beauty treatments in Australia.
Officers also discovered the man, who was on an Electronic Travel Authority with no work rights, had paid a deposit on a premises in Melbourne to trade products between Australia and China.
ABF Acting Regional Commander Victoria, Craig Palmer, said the diligent work of officers on the ground at Melbourne airport paid off, with the intervention preventing dangerous and potentially lethal medical procedures being performed in Australia.
“Our officers are trained to pick up on a range of cues while working the floor in the arrivals hall, and on this occasion they have stopped an individual who was planning to come to Australia to not only work illegally, but who would have posed a significant risk to the community,” Acting Regional Commander Palmer said.
Source: Australian Border Force
“Those who wish to visit Australia must come for genuine purposes and must abide by the conditions of their visa or Electronic Travel Authority. As this occasion shows, these laws are in place to protect Australian workers and the wider community.”
Following an interview with ABF officers, the man’s Electronic Travel Authority was cancelled under s 116 of the Migration Act 1958.
He was subsequently placed in detention and will be removed from Australia on the next available flight. He will now face a three-year exclusion period from entering Australia.
Anyone with information about visa fraud or illegal work activities are encouraged to report it to the ABF’s BorderWatch program by visiting australia.gov.au/borderwatch.
