Australian Border Force cancels plans to check visas on Melbourne Streets

Melbourne’s CBD will be saturated with police with a massive multi-agency operation planned.

Around 10am this morning Australia’s new-look Customs agency, Australian Border Force, announced in a freaky statement that its agents would be working with Victoria Police in “Operation Fortitude”.

Dubbed “Operation Fortitude” it was cancelled by lead agency the Victorian Police on Friday afternoon, after conflicting messages were issued by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection suggesting it would involve spot check of peoples’ visa status in Melbourne’s CBD.

Under the Migration Act, an officer may ask a person they know, or reasonably suspects, is a non-citizen to show their ID, proof of citizenship or visa.

Protesters stormed the station gates and continued the rally inside, while police had to protect two Border Force employees who copped abuse.

Word of the plan spread like wildfire on social media, and there were calls for a snap protest outside the Flinders Street train station.

“We understand there has been a high level of community interest and concern which has been taken into consideration when making this decision”, a police statement said. You need to be aware of the conditions of your visa; if you commit visa fraud you should know it’s only a matter of time before you’re caught out.”Beyond this weekend, the agency will continue to exist and conduct work within the Melbourne CBD”.

Protesters quickly took to the streets of Melbourne after the federal government announced that Australian Border Force would target potential visa fraudsters in the heart of the city.

“We were advised it would target anti-social behaviour and commuters to ensure people got home safely”.

Well yeah, but there are plenty of people tracked down and deported all the time without deploying law enforcement officials on streets to stop people and start questioning them as they make their way to the football or the supermarket.

On a more serious note, Asylum seeker and refugee advocate Pamela Curr expressed outrage at the decision to include Border Force officers in the patrols.

‘How will the Border Force distinguish between locals, visitors and visa holders?’ he told AAP.

‘Operation Fortitude was meant to be a standard police operation’.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has not commented as of 5pm AEST.

Opposition Immigration spokesman Richard Marles said the government’s handling of the operation was at best clumsy and at worst shambolic. Officers will be positioned at various locations throughout the city, stopping anyone who is “brown or brown-looking” to enquire about whether they have the relevant permits to be brown on Australian soil.

“This has been incredibly badly handled and Peter Dutton needs to immediately come clean on how this announcement was so botched”, he said in a statement.