A watershed High Court immigration ruling has allowed 80 asylum seekers to be released “almost immediately” from indefinite detention, the government confirmed on Monday.
Last week, Australia’s highest court in the judicial system overturned a 20-year precedent which authorised indefinite detention of asylum seekers who failed character assessments but could not be deported.
On Monday morning, Minister for Immigration Andrew Giles spoke on ABC’s Radio National, confirming the release of 80 detainees and maintaining the government’s priority of “community safety”.
“Community safety has been our number one priority in anticipation of the decision and since it’s been handed down,” Giles said.
“From day one, the AFP and border force have been working closely with state and territory authorities.”
The High Court’s ruling on Wednesday stemmed from a case of a stateless Rohingya man in detention, who had previously served time in jail for child sex offences. His case argued that he was unlawfully detained.
As the case went to the High Court, the Commonwealth argued overturning the precedent would possibly affect between 92 and 300 people held in similar conditions in detention.
Minister Giles said the government will ensure community safety by doing “all the short term things”.
“Those immediate actions to ensure community safety today, while being focused resolutely on ensuring into the longer term we can keep the community safe and uphold the laws of Australia,” he said on the ABC’s Radio National this morning.
Kon Karapanagiotidis, the founder and CEO of Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said up until the High Court’s decision, Australia was the only democratic country in the world that had the indefinite detention of people as a policy and as a practice.
“It is the end of that shameful chapter,” Karapanagiotidis said in a video explaining what the High Court ruling means.
“It’s incredibly significant… good riddance to this cruel and shameful policy and law in our country.”
Huge and amazing news! The High Court of Australia has just ruled that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful! Here’s what it means. pic.twitter.com/6nQkZOgAyB
— Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) November 8, 2023
Mixed responses to the ruling
According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, there are 1,056 people in immigration detention as of August 31 2023. The Commission reports 124 of them have been detained for more than five years.
Last week, Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM, president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, said the High Court’s ruling was “a truly historic decision”.
“For decades, Australia’s system of mandatory and indefinite immigration detention has imposed an enormous burden on thousands of vulnerable people and their families,” Emeritus Professor Croucher said.
“It has separated families and friends, it has caused significant physical and mental health problems, it has deprived people of hope, and it has taken away from them one of the most fundamental of human rights: the right to liberty.”
Other human rights organisations, including Amnesty International Australia, welcomed the High Court’s decision as a win for asylum seekers and refugees who are unlawfully detained.
Dr Graham Thom, Amnesty International Australia’s Refugee Advisor, said it has undone “the fundamental injustice” of the two-decade long precedent, something the organsation has campaigned against for a long time.
“The High Court has finally recognised that there is no constitutional basis for the Australian Government to detain people with no prospect of future removal from Australia,” Dr Thom said.
“Australia’s indefinite detention regime has been a costly, unjust and problematic framework, and the High Court’s decision is a return to core principles of justice and the rule of law.
“Detaining individuals including those recognised as refugees for years on end, violating human rights, and using the immigration detention system as a form of administrative punishment has undermined Australia’s international reputation on human rights for too long.”
Australia’s Shadow Minister for Immigration, Dan Tehan, argued the public has been kept in the dark about the High Court ruling and the potential risks associated with the release of the asylum seekers who were “being held on character grounds”.
“The public needs to know, and the public wants to know, what is the government doing to keep them safe?” Tehan said.
“What are the character grounds that these people were being held on, what are they doing to liaise with state and territory authorities to keep the community safe?”