Migrants and refugees who commit crimes are going through an unfair authorized system the place they find yourself being detained or deported after finishing their sentences in jail.
The Jail to Deportation Pipeline report discovered that visa cancellations on character grounds elevated tenfold since 2014 resulting in a major spike within the variety of individuals held in immigration detention.
The most recent authorities figures present there are 984 individuals in detention centres, with 824 of them having a prison historical past.
The typical time detainees spent in detention was 513 days (or a couple of 12 months and 4 months).
Researchers from the Human Rights Regulation Centre and the College of Melbourne discovered that non-citizens have a “structurally totally different, extra restrictive expertise in jail” in contrast with Australian residents.
Whereas Australian residents are freed after serving their sentences locally, people who find themselves topic to visa cancellation are “pipelined” from jail to being held in immigration detention centres.
“Folks on visas face a two-track jail system, the place they can’t entry applications, parole and post-release assist out there to others, merely due to their visa standing,” Sanmati Verma, authorized director on the centre, mentioned.
“Folks on visas are successfully being doubly or triply punished.”
Visa holders topic to obligatory cancellations have solely 28 days for that call to be overturned.
“This method units up visa-holders to fail and to lose hope from the second they’re sentenced. It should be dismantled,” Verma mentioned.
Authorities coverage and Excessive Courtroom rulings
In a landmark ruling by the Excessive Courtroom final 12 months, .
This triggered the discharge of over 200 detainees, whose offences ranged from low-level to extra severe crimes, reminiscent of homicide, into the group.
They remained beneath strict situations together with sporting an ankle monitor each day and a curfew between 10pm to 6am.
This month, the Excessive Courtroom in a majority ruling discovered these measures have been punitive.
In response, Dwelling Affairs Minister Tony Burke launched laws to reinstate digital ankle bracelets, curfews, and the ability to take away individuals who have had visas cancelled in third international locations.
“The primary precedence will not be ankle bracelets or detention for these individuals, our first precedence is that we do not need them in Australia in any respect,” the minister mentioned in parliament.
“That’s the reason we launched powers … to enhance the federal government’s capability to take away individuals from this nation on this scenario.”
The report argued that visa cancellation powers don’t provide a restorative path for offenders after jail, both by exporting the issue to different international locations or detaining them additional.
They really helpful repealing obligatory visa cancellation provisions and reviewing requirements regarding jail placement, applications, training and parole for non-citizens.
