In July 2017, my friend Jack was arrested by the police. He made bail a few hours later. His bail had strict conditions including surrendering his passport to the police and not going anywhere near an airport.

Immediately after that, immigration cancelled his visa on character ground because of the charge. They assessed him as a risk to the community for merely being charged. Police charged him based on a compliant made against him by another person, without any evidence at the time. The judge who granted bail already assessed him not to be a risk. Migration laws override criminal laws when it comes to migrants. He was detained as he became an unlawful non-citizen without a visa.

Detention facilities are to be used only as a last resort to facilitate the deportation of non-citizens. Immigration was fully aware he could not be deported due to his pending trial, and his passport was surrendered to police. His detention was purely punitive.

He applied for bridging visas to be in the community while he was in Villawood Detention Centre. Immigration refused those visas. He appealed the refusals with the Administrative Appeal Tribunal (AAT), and he won. Immigration Minister then threatened to personally refuse his visa, a decision that could not be appealed with the AAT. It could only be appealed in courts, but the process was lengthy and costly. He gave up and withdrew his application, spent 1.5 years in detention solely because immigration suspected he might be a risk to community.

Detention changed him forever. He was already extremely stressed about something he was accused of doing, that he did not do after the police arrest. Immigration detaining him when he had not even had a chance to get proper legal assistance for his criminal case, added to his existing stress. Being isolated from the outside made it difficult for him to get access to legal assistance. The decision from his criminal case could be a life-changing decision that would profoundly affect the rest of his life, but he was not able to adequately prepare his legal defence.

He was 1 year away from finishing his study. He was forced to stop it when his visa was cancelled, and being in detention made it impossible for him study anyway. He was anxious about his future. If he were to be deported back home, his highest qualification would only be year 12, which was useless in his country. He would not be able to find a decent job at all. He saw no future.

Being isolated in detention meant he had to rely on help from people around him. After the visa cancellation and appeals, the subsequent visa applications, refusals and appeals, he lost hope in the system. He pushed his girlfriend away as he didn’t want her to wait for him indefinitely. He pushed me away as he didn’t want me to waste time and energy on him. He pushed his mom away as he couldn’t stand to hear her crying everyday. He felt inferior to his other friends who were on track to complete their studies and having a bright future. He became socially withdrawn. He used to be a happy and outgoing boy who gave money to homeless people on the street when he saw them.

He gave up on himself. He left his fate in God’s hands. 1.5 years’ detention for no good reason destroyed him.

We live in a society that enforces 2 sets of rules:

• For Australians: if you are charged with a crime, you are innocent until proven guilty.
• For migrants: if you are charged with a crime, you are guilty until proven innocent.
• For Australians: if you are charged with a crime, you get bail, you wait for your trial outside of a prison.
• For migrants: if you are charged with a crime, you get bail, you wait inside an immigration prison that the government calls a “detention centre” only to mislead the public.
• For Australians: if you are charged with a crime, you get a judicial system that includes legal professionals, expert witnesses and a jury of your peer to decide if you should be locked up.
• For migrants: if you are charged with a crime, you get migration laws which include a few government employees with no legal expertise and one person (Immigration Minister) to decide if you should be locked up.

We already have a highly functioning legal system, we don’t need the character test in migration laws.

We already have police officers, prosecution and judges to assess who present risks to community, we don’t need immigration officers to make another assessment based on nothing but their personal opinions.

If a judge grants someone bail, regardless of that person being an Australian or migrant, they should be allowed to remain in community until their trail is complete. Immigration should not be allowed to disregard a judge’s decision and play police, prosecution and judges with migrants. They certainly should not detain migrants who cannot be deported within a certain timeframe just to punish them.

If we want people to succeed in life, we should not set them up to fail by taking away their liberty without sufficient justification, their opportunity to study for no good reason. Even if detained, people should be able to continue their study, so that they can have a productive life after they are deported to their home country.

This is someone’s life, not some political campaign. It should not be up to politicians to decide, it should be up to legal and medical professionals to decide who are potential risks and who should be detained.

Therefore, I call on Immigration Minister to stop using detention facilities to punish migrants for just being migrants, release everyone who cannot be deported within a reasonable timeframe immediately!  

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-australian-immigration-prison-system,15526