UNCLASSIFIED

Our references: FA 13/11/01119 ; ADF2013/39415

 

Good Morning Mr Sveen

 

I refer to your request for access to information, received on Friday 29
November 2013, for:

 

Firstly, the departmental figures pertaining to the overall number of
applications received throughout 2013 until the date of its receiving this
submission for each of the following visas subclasses:

 

400 (Temporary Work visa, Short Stay Activity),

401 (Temporary Work visa, Long Stay Activity),

402 (Training and Research visa)

476 (Skilled-Recognised Graduate visa)

600 (Visitor visa)

580 (Student Guardian visa)

570 (Independent ELICOS Sector visa)

571 (Schools Sector visa)

572 (Vocational Education and Training Sector visa)

573 (Higher Education Sector visa)

574 (Postgraduate Research Sector visa)

575 (Non Award Sector visa)

602 (Medical Treatment visa)

 

Secondly, the number of visa applications received by DIAC for each of the
subclasses listed above from applicants who claim to have a passport from
one of the following countries:

            a) Iraq,

            b) Afghanistan,

            c) Yemen,

            d) Somalia,

            e) Iran,

            f) Sri Lanka,

            g) Sudan,

            h) Myanmar (Burma),

            i) Syria,

            j) Central African Republic,

            k) Mali,

            l) Eriteria,

            m) DR Congo,

            n) Egypt, and

            o) applicants who claim to possess a Palestinian Authority
passport

 

Thirdly, a summary of how many applications for each of the aforementioned
visa types were refused for applicants holding a passport for one of the
aforesaid countries, as indicated by a breakdown of the number of refusals
by each aforesaid country respectively.

 

 

This email is to advise that the Department has not accepted your request
as valid under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act).  This is
because your request is for 'information' and not for a document in the
Department's possession at the time of your request.  I will outline more
fully the reasons for this below.

 

Access to Documents

 

The right to request documents under the FOI Act is outlined in the
Guidelines published by the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner (OAIC):

 

Section 11(1) of the FOI Act gives every person a legally enforceable
right to obtain access to a document of an agency or an official document
of a minister, unless the document is exempt. [para 2.1]

 

The right of access enshrined in the FOI Act applies to ‘documents’. This
term is defined in s 4(1) to include maps, photographs, and any article
from which sounds, images or writing are capable of being reproduced (for
example, emails). There is no general obligation on agencies to reduce
information to written documentary form in order to facilitate an FOI
request, except in relation to information that is stored on a computer
tape or disk (s 17). [para 1.26]

 

The right of access is to existing documents, rather than to information.
The FOI Act does not require an agency or minister to create a new
document in response to a request for access, except in limited
circumstances where the applicant seeks access in a different format (see
Part 8 of these Guidelines) or where the information is stored in an
agency computer system rather than in discrete form.

The right of access applies to documents that exist at the time the FOI
request was made. [para 3.8]

 

Therefore, any general request for 'information' or 'data' that does not
already exist in the Department’s documents is considered an invalid
request.

 

The full Guidelines can be accessed on the OAIC's website at:
[1]http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-inform...

 

This request has been closed as invalid.

 

Access to published statistics

 

You may not be aware that the Department publishes a number of statistical
and research reports. These can be found at
[2]http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publication... .  

 

In addition I recommend the following link which contains a vast amount of
statistics already publically available regarding many aspects of the
department’s migration program including student visas and migration
trends: [3]http://www.immi.gov.au/media/statistics/ .

 

Regards

 

Kara

 

Kara Turnbull
FOI & Privacy Administrative Officer
Ministerial, Executive and External Accountability Branch

Department of Immigration and Border Protection
Email: [4][email address]

 

 

 

UNCLASSIFIED

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References

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2. http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publication...
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