Reports and briefing papers on people smuggling

Asher Hirsch made this Freedom of Information request to Australian Federal Police

This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.

The request was successful.

Dear Australian Federal Police,

Under Freedom of Information please provide reports and/or briefing papers prepared for senior officials and/or the Minister on people smuggling. I am seeking the final copies of these reports and only those that are high level summaries of activities or operations.

For example, I am looking for reports that refer to the number of people smuggling interceptions taken place in a given year, and the number of potential illegal maritime arrivals intercepted.

Please limit this request to reports produced from 2000 to 2017.

Yours faithfully,

Asher Hirsch

FOI, Australian Federal Police

Thank you for your email.

Please note that this is an automated response to confirm that your email was sent to the Australian Federal Police Freedom of Information (FOI) inbox.

This FOI inbox is monitored between 8am and 4pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays and the period from 27-31 December.

If you wish to lodge a request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), please ensure that your request is in writing, states that it is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act and provides sufficient detail describing the documents you wish to access.

If you are requesting personal information about yourself then please ensure you enclose a copy of your photographic identification.

Further details on how to make a valid FOI request can be found on the Australian Federal Police’s website at: http://www.afp.gov.au/about-the-afp/foi-...

The Australian Federal Police will acknowledge your request in accordance with the legislative requirements of the Act.

The FOI Team can be contacted on 02 6131 6131

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FOI, Australian Federal Police

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Asher,

YOUR FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

I refer to your application dated 28 April 2018 in which you seek access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the Act) as follows:

"Under Freedom of Information please provide reports and/or briefing papers prepared for senior officials and/or the Minister on people smuggling. I am seeking the final copies of these reports and only those that are high level summaries of activities or operations.

For example, I am looking for reports that refer to the number of people smuggling interceptions taken place in a given year, and the number of potential illegal maritime arrivals intercepted.

Please limit this request to reports produced from 2000 to 2017

Information considered irrelevant to the scope of your request"

The AFP, in its management of FOI requests, excludes the following information on the basis that is irrelevant to the scope of a request:

- Names of AFP members, other than the Senior Executive.
- Direct telephone numbers, signatures and mobile telephone numbers of AFP members.
- Duplicate documents, including duplicate emails. The AFP will only provide emails where they form a final email chain and the authors/recipients are contained within the final email.
- Information that is publicly available, for example, newspaper articles, online publications including information available on the AFP Information Publication Scheme and the AFP disclosure log.

If you object to the AFP excluding any of the above information, please advise this office within seven days of receipt of this letter.

Disclosure of your Identity

In addition, should the AFP be required to consult with third parties in accordance with the sections 26A (Commonwealth/State information), 27 (business affairs) and 27A (personal information) of the Act, do you have any objections to those parties/organisations knowing your identity for the purposes of the consultation? If we do not receive your consent or do not receive a response, we will not disclosure your identity to third parties.

Timeframe

Your request was received by this agency on 28 April 2018, and the 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced from that date.

Charges

You will be notified of any charges in accordance with the Freedom of Information (Fees and Charges) Regulations, should they apply, in relation to your request as soon as practicable.

Yours sincerely

Jane (AFP18764)
FOI OFFICER
CHIEF COUNSEL PORTFOLIO
AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE

Tel +61(0) 2 61315156 Ext 145156
www.afp.gov.au

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FOI, Australian Federal Police

1 Attachment

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Asher,

 

I refer to your FOI request with reference CRM2018/606.

On preliminary assessment, it has been identified that your request, as it
currently stands, is voluminous and onerous to complete. This is due to
the fact that you have requested records between 2000 – 2017, totalling 17
years of information. Further, your request is quite broad, where you
refer to “people smuggling” without the refinement of a particular country
or region and without any other specifying factors.

 

To avoid a practical refusal under the FOI Act on the grounds that your
request would be a diversion of resources, you might wish to consider
narrowing the scope of your request considerably to records relating to a
shorter time period (for example, a five year period), to a particular
country and potentially to one specific document type, such as Ministerial
Briefs or Senate Estimates Briefs etc.

 

I would be grateful if you consider the above and advise whether you would
be agreeable to reducing the scope of your request to a more manageable
size.

 

Also, please note that this team is experiencing a very high volume of
requests and whilst every endeavour is made to meet timeframes there will
be unavoidable delays at this time. 

 

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

Regards,

 

SOPHIE (AFP20849)
TEAM MEMBER, FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
LEGAL

Tel +61(0) 2 61316131  
[1]www.afp.gov.au
[2]Australian Federal Police

 

 

UNCLASSIFIED

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.afp.gov.au/
2. http://www.afp.gov.au/

Asher Hirsch

Dear Sophie,

Thank you for your advice.

Please further limit the request to the years 2012 to 2017, and only in relation to people smuggling in Indonesia. Please also limit the documents to Ministerial briefings and other similar documents provided to the Minister.

Yours sincerely,

Asher Hirsch

FOI, Australian Federal Police

Thank you for your email.

Please note that this is an automated response to confirm that your email was sent to the Australian Federal Police Freedom of Information (FOI) inbox.

This FOI inbox is monitored between 8am and 4pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays and the period from 27-31 December.

If you wish to lodge a request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), please ensure that your request is in writing, states that it is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act and provides sufficient detail describing the documents you wish to access.

If you are requesting personal information about yourself then please ensure you enclose a copy of your photographic identification.

Further details on how to make a valid FOI request can be found on the Australian Federal Police’s website at: http://www.afp.gov.au/about-the-afp/foi-...

The Australian Federal Police will acknowledge your request in accordance with the legislative requirements of the Act.

The FOI Team can be contacted on 02 6131 6131

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Dear FOI,

Please can you provide an update on this request. I note it is long overdue.

Yours sincerely,

Asher Hirsch

FOI, Australian Federal Police

Thank you for your email.

Please note that this is an automated response to confirm that your email was sent to the Australian Federal Police Freedom of Information (FOI) inbox.

This FOI inbox is monitored between 8am and 4pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays and the period from 27-31 December.

If you wish to lodge a request for access to documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), please ensure that your request is in writing, states that it is an application for the purposes of the FOI Act and provides sufficient detail describing the documents you wish to access.

If you are requesting personal information about yourself then please ensure you enclose a copy of your photographic identification.

Further details on how to make a valid FOI request can be found on the Australian Federal Police’s website at: http://www.afp.gov.au/about-the-afp/foi-...

The Australian Federal Police will acknowledge your request in accordance with the legislative requirements of the Act.

The FOI Team can be contacted on 02 6131 6131

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FOI, Australian Federal Police

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Hirsch,

Thank you for your email below requesting an update on the progress of your FOI request.

Your request is currently in the final clearance stage of the FOI process. I anticipate a final decision being provided to you by Friday the 27 July 2018. This is assuming there are no hold up to the clearance process.

We apologise for the delay in finalising your request, however, please be assured that we are endeavouring to complete the request as soon as possible.

Kind regards

Elise (AFP12830)
FOI OFFICER - FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
CHIEF COUNSEL
AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE

Tel +61(0) 2 61316131
www.afp.gov.au

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FOI, Australian Federal Police

2 Attachments

UNCLASSIFIED

Dear Mr Hirsch,

 

Please see attached correspondence from this office regarding FOI request
CRM2018/606.

 

Kind regards

 

Elise (AFP12830)
FOI OFFICER - FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
CHIEF COUNSEL

Tel +61(0) 2 61316131
[1]www.afp.gov.au
[2]Australian Federal Police

 

UNCLASSIFIED

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.afp.gov.au/
2. http://www.afp.gov.au/