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Last Updated: Apr 9, 2007 - 12:46:40 AM |
ELIZABETH JACKSON: The Immigration Department has drawn renewed criticism, after revealing a total of 26 Australian citizens had been mistakenly held in detention centres over the past 10 years.
South Australian Labour backbencher, Steve Georganas, says the 26 were among 220 people wrongfully detained in that time, and he's called for further inquiries to determine the circumstances of all the cases.
Last year's Palmer and Comrie inquiries focussed on the high-profile cases of Cornelia Rau and Vivan Solon.
Miss Rau was kept in immigration detention for 10 months, even though she was an Australian citizen, while Ms Solon was also detained, and then deported before the department realised the mistake.
Barney Porter compiled this report.
BARNEY PORTER: Mr Georganas says he put a question on notice last November on how many Australians may have been mistakenly detained, and received a reply this week from the former Immigration Minister, Philip Ruddock, who admitted 26 had been locked up.
Mr Ruddock also admitted the Federal Government had paid more than $116,000 in 11 wrongful detention claims since 1995.
He said the Commonwealth had been found liable in four cases, and the other seven were settled out of court.
Mr Georganas says it's unacceptable.
STEVE GEORGANAS: This is abhorrent, when you hear of Australian citizens being unlawfully detained, it really, really goes to the core of what we are as a society, and we need to get to the bottom of it and ensure it stops happening.
BARNEY PORTER: How long were they detained for, the 26?
STEVE GEORGANAS: At this point we don't know, but we know that the longest was over 20 months, or around that period, for 20 months.
BARNEY PORTER: Do we know who they are?
STEVE GEORGANUS: Unfortunately not. We don't know who they are. That's the next question that I'll put on notice to be investigated. But we do know that a lot of them have settled out of court, and what's happening now is that it's the incompetency of the minister and the department is costing the Australian taxpayer money.
BARNEY PORTER: Did the minister's office give you any indication of how this came about?
STEVE GEORGANAS: No, we've had no indication, and that's what we want to find out, how all this came about, individually, case by case, and what went wrong in each case, 'cause it's just not on. In 2006, in a democratic country like Australia, where we lock up our own citizens for no absolute reason.
BARNEY PORTER: A spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration said last night all 220 cases have been referred to the Ombudsman for investigation, but of the 26 Australians, not all were wrongfully detained, and therefore not all were causes of concern.
She said some of people were detained for a short period while their identity or legal status was determined; or where their legal status had changed through a court ruling.
She also noted all of the cases had occurred before the Palmer Inquiry began sitting, and said the Government had since made changes to its procedures to prevent any recurrence.
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