Law to end the indefinite and arbitrary detention of refugees must be passed after overwhelming response to Inquiry

Media Release

11 February 2022

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), joined by around 350 other organisations and individuals, called on the Morrison Government to accept in its entirety proposed legislation currently before a Parliamentary Inquiry that would end indefinite and arbitrary detention.

The Ending Indefinite and Arbitrary Immigration Detention Bill was introduced by Independent MP Andrew Wilkie in 2021, seconded by Independent MP Zali Steggall, and is currently in front of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration for review.

The ASRC in its submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry urged the Committee to release people seeking asylum and refugees from immigration detention as well as end indefinite and arbitrary detention. ASRC was unanimously supported in this call by hundreds of other organisations and individuals submitted to the inquiry.

Currently, Australia is an outlier amongst comparable countries concerning both the length of time people spend in immigration detention and their treatment within detention.

Since 2013, the average amount of days spent in detention has drastically increased from under 100 days to 689 days, compared to an average of 14 days in Canada, 55 in the United States and 29 in the United Kingdom.

The conditions in detention are dangerously inadequate, with 42 complaints of sexual assault complaints against detention centre workers; 172 complaints of assault; and over 2,650 actual and threatened instances of self-harm since 2016.

Refugees and people seeking asylum currently held are at critical risk, with some having spent 9 years in detention. Detention centres, like Park Hotel in Melbourne, are dangerous with unsanitary conditions, lack of fresh air and limited access to inadequate medical care.

Thanush Selvarasa, human rights activist and refugee detained on Manus Island, PNG, Mantra and MITA, released on 28 Jan 2021 said: “If this Bill gets passed it will be such a wonderful thing. We are victims of indefinite detention, still my friends are held there. Because of this policy, we were broken mentally and physically, 14 of us died because of detention. The support to end indefinite detention is a positive thing, it means a lot. Nowhere else on earth has this policy. It must end.”

Rachel Saravanamuthu, Acting Principal ASRC Human Rights Law Program said: “Arbitrary and indefinite detention is a breach of people’s fundamental human rights. No one should be punished for seeking asylum. It is time for Australia to end its punitive detention regime and for the government to be held accountable. This Bill is long overdue in bringing Australia’s detention regime in line with our international human rights obligations and ensuring people seeking asylum and refugees are treated with humanity”.

Jana Favero, Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at ASRC said: “It is heartening to see hundreds of submissions supporting an end to indefinite and arbitrary detention. These submissions have come from everyday Australians, human rights organisations, unions, religious groups and many more and not a single one opposed the Bill. Yet indefinite and arbitrary detention continues to be policy.”

“The Morrison Government has become dangerously detached from the reality of this situation and is completely out of step with public sentiment. The message is clear: end indefinite and arbitrary detention, grant freedom to refugees currently held and provide support for those released. Every day the Morrison Government chooses to myopically ignore this call is a day where they become more isolated and are subjected to unnecessary torture.”

Read ASRC’s submission in full here: LINK

–ENDS–

Media contact: Sam Brennan 0428 973 324 or sam.b4@asrc.org.au