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Australia's shame

Australia, like many countries around the world, is confronted with so-called illegal immigrants seeking to enter the country.  Problem is that Australia deals with the issue in a harsh and inhumane way.    No less importantly, as the case detailed below so clearly shows, actions such as those of the Australian security agency, create an untenable and outrageous result - that is, the possible detention of a mother and child indefinitely without trial and their no knowing the basis for it.

"David Manne of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre has launched a High Court action to break the impasse facing refugees who have been adversely assessed by ASIO.

His action is to be applauded. The problem, which currently affects 62 people in Australian detention centres, needs to be solved urgently.

The problem is exemplified by the case of Ranjini. Shortly before Mothers Day, Ranjini and her two children, aged 6 and 9 years, were removed from the community and placed in detention at Villawood.

They are refugees: that fact is accepted by the Government. They are in detention now because their protection visas have been cancelled.

Why? Because ASIO has assessed them adversely on security grounds. They will not tell her why. The best guess is that her husband, who is dead, may once have been a driver for Tamil separatists in Sri Lanka. Even if that is true, it does not involve the woman and her children in any sort of offence, and it says nothing about their character.

They may remain in detention for years, perhaps forever. How can that be, in a free democratic country like Australia? It is the result of two court decisions which most Australians have never heard of.

First, if a person is adversely assessed by ASIO, they are not told what facts ASIO took into account in forming its views, so it is virtually impossible to show that ASIO was wrong."

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"This case, and the case of Ranjini and her children, raises three questions we should face squarely. The way we answer these questions will define what we are as a country:

Should any person be held in custody indefinitely, absent any allegation that they have broken the law?

Should any person be locked up indefinitely without being given a chance to challenge, in a meaningful way, the reason for their detention?

Should any child face the prospect of lifetime imprisonment?

At present, Australian law allows a child to be imprisoned (potentially for life) without having broken the law and without being able to challenge the reason for their imprisonment.

It is a scandal that our law allows this. Regardless of your views about refugees, I cannot think that many Australians would support such obvious injustice. Regardless of your views about refugees, we should all hope that this High Court challenge succeeds."

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