World News | 80 People Freed from Australian Migrant Centres Since High Court Outlawed Indefinite Detention
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Eighty people, including convicted criminals considered dangerous, have been released from Australian migrant detention centres since the High Court ruled last week that their indefinite detention was unconstitutional, the immigration minister said on Monday.
Canberra (Australia), Nov 13 (AP) Eighty people, including convicted criminals considered dangerous, have been released from Australian migrant detention centres since the High Court ruled last week that their indefinite detention was unconstitutional, the immigration minister said on Monday.
A member of Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority won freedom Wednesday when the court outlawed his indefinite detention.
Australia has been unable to find any country willing to resettle the man, identified only as NZYQ, because he had been convicted of raping a 10-year-old boy, and authorities consider him a danger to the Australian community.
The court overturned a 2004 High Court precedent set in the case of a Palestinian man, Ahmed Al-Kateb, that found stateless people could be held indefinitely in detention.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said NZYQ is one of 80 people who had been detained indefinitely and have been freed since Wednesday's ruling.
“It is important to note that the High Court hasn't yet provided reasons for its decision, so the full ramifications of the decision won't be able to be determined,” Giles told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“We have been required, though, to release people almost immediately in order to abide by the decision,” he added.
All 80 were released with appropriate visa conditions determined by factors including an individual's criminal record, Giles said.
“Community safety has been our number one priority in anticipation of the decision and since it's been handed down,” he said.
Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue told the court last week that 92 people in detention were in similar circumstances to NZYQ in that no other country would accept them.
“The more undesirable they are ... the more difficult it is to remove them to any other country in the world, the stronger their case for admission into the Australian community — that is the practical ramifications” of outlawing indefinite detention, Donaghue said.
NZYQ came to Australia in a people smuggling boat in 2012. He had been in detention since January 2015 after he was charged with raping a child and his visa was cancelled.
Ian Rintoul, Sydney-based director of the Australian advocacy group Refugee Action Coalition, said it was unclear on what basis detainees were being released.
One detainee from the restive Indonesian province of West Papua has been in a Sydney detention centre for 15 years and has not been freed, Rintoul said.
Not all the detainees were stateless. Iran will accept its citizens only if they return voluntarily from Australia, and Australia has stopped deporting Afghans since the Taliban took control, Rintoul said. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)