Long term detainees finally walk free
by Vera Thursday October 12, 2006 at 01:51 AM

On Friday three detainees walked free from immigration detention. All came out of psychiatric hospitals after years in detention. The longest was 6 years. According to Pamela Curr of the Melbourne Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, "Six long hard years of soul destroying, spirit breaking detention for no moral reason. One permanent protection visa and two temporary visas in the Vanstone lottery."

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As Refugee Week approaches the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre are doing an audit of long termers still in detention to increase the pressure for their release. Even after 6 and 7 years there are people hidden away in the hellholes of immigration detention, too scared to speak out. The Centre welcomes information on long term detainees.

While the Ombudsmans office is notified of people locked up for more than 2 years and this information gets tabled in Parliament , it does not necessarily mean that any action is taken. The Ombudsman can only make recommendations with no power to release detainees under any circumstances.

Although children and many long termers have been released, the legislation allowing indefinte long term detention still exists. The Centre keeps constant vigilance on detention with information from friends inside always required to keep a watch on persons who are rotting away in detention without representation or action.

There are also people out in Community detention, Alternative detention, Bridging Visas, Return Pending Visas and sundry other incarceration methods - some after 6 and 7 years.

New Report: Deported to Danger II

Of those detainees who have taken up repatriation, “The vast majority are living in danger. Some have been killed." said Edmund Rice Centre (ERC) director Phil Glendenning. The Edmund Rice Centre (ERC) have released in October 'Deported to Danger II', which continues examining the fate of people whose claims for protection in Australia were rejected.

“In 2006, we interviewed 41 asylum seekers, 36 for the first time and 5 for the second time. This brings the total number of formal interviews to 81. So far we have made contact with over 200 people from 20 countries.” ERC director Phil Glendenning said.

The report was sent to the Minister for Immigration, the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. According to the report, 39 of the 41 were deported to danger. Two have found welcome in New Zealand.

“We believe the experiences of these men provide strong evidence that their claims were rejected based on flawed assessments.” Mr. Glendenning said. “Factors contributing to such flawed assessments include lack of relevant and sometimes crucial knowledge of the complex, historical, social cultural realities of an asylum seeker’s homeland. Pressures and inducements used to persuade these to men to accept removal indicate that the term ‘voluntary’ is unjustified."

Mr. Glendenning accused the Australian Government of purposely sidestepping the democratic and legal traditions in Australia by use of detention in Nauru, and breaching Australian values and international obligations to safeguard human rights. "It imposes sub-standard living conditions and subjects people to demeaning treatment on deportation flights." he said.

"Fundamental reform is needed if we are to honour human rights obligations and the values they enshrine." Those who are in danger have compelling cases for their claims to be reassessed.” Mr. Glendenning concluded.

The Edmund Rice Centre has an ongoing project monitoring the fate of asylum seekers deported from Australia. The project has released two reports, Deported to Danger and Deported to Danger II (the full report is 1.6MB, you can also download the executive summary which is under 200KB).

Sources:

1. Email from Pamela Curr
2. Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
3. Edmund Rice Centre Media Release, 3/10/06

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