Rwandan spies 'informing' on refugee community in Australia
Rwandan spies in Australia are informing on refugees from the east African nation, according to a local media investigation.
The revelation comes as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) this weekend warned that interference from foreign agents had reached an “unprecedented scale”.
The Australia Broadcasting Corpropation (ABC) uncovered a covert recording of an alleged Rwandan spy filmed in a carpark in Queensland late last year.
The man can be heard detailing how the Rwandan government runs secret missions from its embassies and high commissions.
One Rwandan refugee and government critic told the broadcaster he had been threatened by a countryman upon his arrival in Australia. He said Queensland police urged him to stay out of south Brisbane, where they believed Rwandan operatives worked.
The man further claimed that spies were planted in the country on student visas, as these were easier to obtain.
A government advisor on African-Australian relations, Dr Nadine Shema, told the broadcaster she warned Canberra of the rising threat of intimidation of Rwandan dissenters.
ABC also found evidence that then foreign-minister Julie Bishop had been warned in 2017 that the Rwandan High Commissioner to Singapore had threatened to kill a Rwanda-born resident of New South Wales.
“The Ambassador has diplomatic immunity in Australia,” a police statement read. Guillaume Kavarugand a did not comment when approached by ABC.
Senior intelligence sources have told the ABC that China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, North Korea and Malaysia were known to monitor their diaspora in Australia, while also seeking to silence dissenters who might speak out against their former governments.
“Refugees who flee often have family connections remaining with (their) home country,” explained Professor John Blaxland from the Australian National University.
“The (foreign) government can choose to exercise that power over the minds of the residents in Australia concerning safety and wellbeing of relatives back home, and that can be a very difficult pressure to resist.”
He said expats could be compelled or coerced into “gathering information to pass back to the home country” or “conducting illegal acts that are not in the interest of the company they are working for or Australia more broadly — effectively hostile acts”.
ASIO has cautioned that “both espionage and foreign interference can inflict economic damage…and threaten the safety of Australians.”
Espionage by “malicious insiders” is a crime in Australia, punishable by up to 25 years imprisonment.
