Two male Ukrainian nationals have been refused entry into Australia for attempting to bring in nearly 5kg of pork and pork products, seriously breaching Australia's biosecurity laws.
Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management, David Littleproud said these were the 13th and 14th cancellations under the new biosecurity-related visa cancellation ground since 1 October 2019, and the first since Australian borders were effectively closed to international travellers.
"I secured a framework for strong biosecurity compliance at our borders in April 2019 to protect our reputation as a leading supplier of safe, healthy, high-quality food," Minister Littleproud said.
"One traveller failed to declare 1975g of raw pork fat, 660g of salami, 100g of pork rind, 340g of chicken, 870g of non-eviscerated fish and 350g of other fish.
"The other traveller failed to declare 2235g of pork meat and fat.
"Each of the items seized could pose a direct threat to our agricultural industries and environment. Australia will not tolerate people putting our world-class clean, green reputation at risk by failing to declare food on arrival in Australia.
"We have significant diseases like African swine fever on our doorstep, and a key pathway for threats like these to arrive in Australia is by international passengers bringing in risk items and authorities will not stand for it.
"The travellers contravened subsection 533(1) of the Biosecurity Act 2015 by knowingly providing a false or misleading document (ie the Incoming Passenger Card) to a biosecurity officer on arrival to Australia.
"The punishment must fit the crime and that's why we introduced this legislation to cancel visitor visas when a passenger commits a significant biosecurity breach or repeatedly contravenes our biosecurity laws."
The men, both merchant seaman, arrived at Perth International Airport on a flight from Singapore on Friday night (28 August). They were holding Transit Visas and were due to enter quarantine for 14 days prior to joining a commercial ship at Fremantle.
After Biosecurity officers detected the food in the men's baggage they were referred to Australian Border Force (ABF) officers who then cancelled their visas.
The travellers are now in immigration detention pending removal from Australia. They are likely to be ineligible to come back to Australia for three years.
Australian residents who fail to declare biosecurity risk goods may be issued an infringement notice for $444, and legislation is currently being considered by Parliament to increase this penalty to $2664 for certain high risk products. For serious breaches, they may also be subject to criminal prosecution. If convicted, they could be penalised up to $444,000 and could face up to 10 years in jail.
