Court cracks secret detention system
A$6 million (NZ$6.7m) drug smuggling operation.
The 31-year-old, who has a lengthy criminal record in Australia, was sent on September 1 to the island camp in the Indian Ocean on a specially chartered Airbus A319 in an operation that is likely to cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Sunday Age understands Immigration Minister Peter Dutton cancelled his visa and ordered his incarceration in the facility at the request of a senior federal police officer involved in the criminal case.
But the immigration agency’s interference in a pending court matter was rejected by Magistrate Suzanne Cameron, who refused to conduct the man’s scheduled committal hearing via video link and ordered his return to Melbourne.
Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs and other legal experts have previously flagged concerns that the right to a fair trial could be impeded for detainees because they were unlikely to receive proper access to legal services on the isolated island.
The man will now be returned to Melbourne several days before his committal hearing begins in late October, but sources say Border Force is considering whether it will send him back to Christmas Island if he is again granted bail by a magistrate.
‘‘He has to be the first offender who doesn’t want to get bail,’’ a source said. ‘‘Being remanded in custody in a Melbourne prison is infinitely better than being held in that shithole on Christmas Island.’’ Solicitor Theo Magazis said his client was facing an ‘‘outrageous’’ choice. ‘‘He has to choose to have his bail revoked and be placed in custody in order to (be) actually given the opportunity to face the charges against him.’’ The married father-of-two, who arrived in the country at age of 14 as a refugee, never became a citizen and can therefore have his visa cancelled at the direction of the Minister. The Australian Border Force and Australian Federal Police have declined to comment on the case.
The Sunday Age understands it is the first time sweeping new immigration powers granted by the former Abbott government have been used to detain a noncitizen on Christmas Island while they were still awaiting trial.
The detention camp, which is a three-and-a-half hour flight northwest of Perth near Indonesia, is believed to hold about 120 detainees who have had their visas revoked on character grounds or for past criminal convictions.
Of the hundreds of people who have had their visas cancelled since December, it is believed there have been few cases of an individual’s country of origin accepting their return. A growing number are being sent to Christmas Island to be housed for indefinite detention.
In the case of the Iraqi refugee, the Border Force used a specially chartered Airbus A319 to transport him from Melbourne to Christmas Island.
He was accompanied on the otherwise empty passenger jet by a large contingent of private security guards and Border Force officials.
The operation began when he reported to Victoria Police as part of his bail conditions, but was instead taken into custody and then handed over to immigration officials at an airplane hangar in Tullamarine Airport.
His family and solicitor were unaware of his location for nearly a full day as Border Force officials refused to allow him to contact anyone for ‘‘operational reasons’’.
Sources say authorities investigated the possibility of detaining the man at Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre, but it was near capacity and was deemed ill-resourced to cope with a detainee classified as ‘‘high risk’’.
It is not known how much the special charter flight cost, but the Department of Immigration issued a A$99 million contract to a private airline nearly three years ago for transporting detainees among its various mainland and offshore camps.
The contract is now reportedly valued at A$24 million.