JEWISH REFUGEES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 14, 17 July 1939, Page 10

JEWISH REFUGEES

A SYDNEY "RACKET"

HIGH FEES FOR USELESS

OFFER

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, July 6.

Exorbitant fees are being charged ia Sydney by some agents engaged in the business of assisting Jewish refugees and other aliens to obtain. permits to land in Australia. Some refugees have complained that they have been charged from £20 to £50 by agents who have offered' to assist ; them in submitting their applications for pei> mits to Canberra. The customary professional fee charged by a solicitor for legal services of this kind is £ 1 ls or £2 2s.

The method employed by. some Sydney permit dealers is to insert advertisements in Geraian and Austrian newspapers offering to give advice ta refugees who wish to migrate to Australia. A; Sydney address is given and prospective applicants are invited to write or cable tor further information. They are then informed that, before' their applications can-be* sent to Canberra, they must forward to the Sydney address the requisite landing money, with fee.

The Minister of the Interior, .Senator Foil, has wrarned applicants for per* mits that no advantage can be obtained by employing agents who promise to exert influence with Departmental officers in Canberra. He has made it clear that the advice of paid agents is not essential, and that a person wishing to come to Australia can obtain the necessary forms of application direct without having to pay any fee. "No direct approach by. self-styled agents or others will be of any value in the pepartment's consideration of the case of any applicant," he said.

The official warning was made after evidence had been given to the Minister that the submission of applications for permits was being used as a "racket" to extract fees on an unfair scale from persons in Germany and Austria who wished to migrate to Australia. Victims of religious or political persecution in those countries, driven to desperation, are easy prey to blandishments and promises Scores of refugees and aliens have paid the fees demanded.

The Department of the Interior at present has about 70,000 applications for landing permits to deal with Officials have no time to listen to verbal representations. Early this year the Federal Government undertook that Australia would permit 15,000 Jewish refugees to land in three years, though not necessarily at a rate of. 5000 a yel?. In the last twelve months, nearly 5000 Jews have reached.Australia.