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Home Affairs Minister Clare O\u2019Neil has confirmed more detainees than an initial 93 people could be released from immigration detention after a landmark High Court decision.<\/p>\n
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson has warned an unintended consequence of the Court\u2019s decision could see Australia become a \u201cvery attractive destination for people who have committed serious crimes overseas\u201d because Australia does not return people to a country that has capital punishment.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neil confirmed the decision to free the 93 people could extend to up to 340 people, a figure flagged by Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue during the case, but said it was \u201cvery unlikely\u201d the Court\u2019s decision would mean all of those people would be released from immigration detention.<\/p>\n
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Home Affairs Minister Clare O\u2019Neil has confirmed more detainees will be released from detention.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Alex Ellinghausen<\/cite><\/p>\n However, the minister conceded the government had been incorrectly advised by her department, Home Affairs, that the Commonwealth was likely to win the case that had been brought by a stateless Rohingya man, who lost his Australian visa and was detained after being convicted of raping a 10-year-old boy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were advised that it was likely that the Commonwealth would win the case \u2013 that is, allow us to do what we wanted to do, which is keep these people in detention,\u201d she told Sky News.<\/p>\n \u201cWe received that advice from the Department of Home Affairs, who tell us what chances we have of success and failure in each legal case.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Neil said the High Court had overturned a 20-year legal precedent \u201cwhich has governed how the Commonwealth deals with immigration detention\u201d and that the immediate effect was the removal of 93 people from immigration detention \u2013 but the total number of people could rise to 340.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 340 figure \u2026 is a number that includes the 90 people, so the consideration needs to be made now, when we receive the reasons for [the] decision from the High Court about if any additional people from that cohort will need to be released,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 340 number is a group of people who have been in immigration detention for longer than a year. It is very unlikely that the High Court\u2019s ruling will apply to all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Paterson told this masthead that because Australia did not extradite people to countries with the death penalty, \u201cif the crime they\u2019ve committed is so serious that they can\u2019t be resettled in a third country, the implication of the High Court ruling is that they must be freed from detention\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is for this cohort that continuing or preventative detention orders are particularly important. Otherwise Australia is offering a perverse incentive for people we really don\u2019t want in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has said there were three murderers in the group of 93 people freed after the court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n One of them is a former Malaysian prime ministerial bodyguard, Sirul Azhar Umar, who was sentenced to death in Malaysia for the 2006 murder of a model, Altantuyaa Shaariibuu, but escaped to Australia and had been held in immigration detention. He is now free and said to be living in Canberra. A number of countries in south-east Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, retain the death penalty.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neil said the Commonwealth had lost a case that was \u201cso significant, it does need the Commonwealth to rethink the management of immigration detention, and we will work through that\u201d once the court releases the reasons for its decision early next year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to keep these people in detention, because I do not want people like this walking the streets of our country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Paterson said the government had not been ready with a plan to deal with an adverse court decision and questioned how the number of people detained had grown to 93 people.<\/p>\n \u201cNinety-three people, which by the way, the government has not explained. The solicitor-general told the High Court there were 92 people who needed to be immediately released. We\u2019ve now hit 93. And the question is open, have we started to move into that cohort [of] 340? Who are they?\u201d Paterson told ABC\u2019s Insiders<\/em> program.<\/p>\n Emergency laws to deal with the court\u2019s decision came into effect on Saturday, with Giles saying that mandatory curfews and electronic monitoring would apply to the entire group of 93 people released from immigration detention \u201cfor as long as they remain in Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n The minister defended the handling of the decision, stating the government had not known back in June \u2013 as the opposition has suggested \u2013 that an adverse decision was likely.<\/p>\n And O\u2019Neil slammed opposition leader Peter Dutton\u2019s call for the entire cohort of people to be re-detained \u2013 effectively overturning a High Court decision \u2013 as \u201cutterly impossible\u201d.<\/p>\n Paterson was thrice asked if it was possible for the government to implement Dutton\u2019s call for all 93 people to return to immigration detention, but did not answer the question.<\/p>\n