May 3, 2024
Labor urged to act on released detainees after visa breaches
Labor is under pressure to apply for preventative detention orders to put high-risk immigration detainees released by a controversial High Court decision back behind bars, after three of the men were charged with breaching visa conditions in a single week.
More than six months since the federal government passed emergency laws allowing it to apply to the courts for released detainees deemed at significant risk of reoffending to be taken of the streets, not one application has been made.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also continued to stand by Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles amid calls from the Opposition for their resignations over the repeated bungled handling of the release of 153 non-citizens previously convicted of serious crimes.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said all the detainee issues could be traced back to Ms O'Neil and Mr Giles.
"I don't see how either of them can survive," he said.
On Thursday, Australian Federal Police announced officers had arrested a Burundiborn man in Perth and charged the 42-year-old with five counts of failing to comply with a curfew condition and one of failing to keep a monitoring device in order.
Earlier this week a 31-year-old Afghanistan-born man was arrested in Brisbane and charged with two counts of failing to comply with curfew conditions attached to his visa.
Also this week, the AFP charged a 45-year-old Sudanese man in Melbourne with three counts of failing to comply with curfew and one of failing to ensure his monitoring device was in good order.
Since December there have been more than a dozen instances of released detainees charged with alleged visa breaches related to either curfew conditions or electronic monitoring failures.
Opposition Home Affairs spokesman James Paterson said in the wake of former immigration detainee Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan being charged over the alleged violent bashing of a Perth grandmother and theft of $200,000 worth of jewellery from her home this week, the government must act now to lock up other high-risk ex-detainees.
"Not one murderer, not one sex offender, not one violent assaulter has been taken off the streets using (preventative detention) powers," he said.
Mr Paterson said Labor also must ensure all of the released detainees were wearing ankle monitors, after it was revealed Doukoshkan had been allowed to take his off.
Mr Albanese initially pointed to state bail schemes when asked about Doukoshkan's ankle monitor, but pushed on why the Commonwealth's own Community Protection Board had actually made the recommendation for it to be removed, he declined to weigh in.
"It's not appropriate for me to comment on individual cases," he said.
