Hi everyone, 

I would like to give you an update - we now have more than 1025 supporters. If we can continue sharing and supporting this petition, I feel confident we can make an impact. 

I also published an article on Independent Australia (https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-australian-immigration-prison-system,15526 raising this issue. 

Since COVID-19 broke out, we have been so anxious about the lockdown, about the frustration that we cannot travel freely. How many of us have been protesting in Sydney and Melbourne? How many of us have been angry about the deprivation of our liberty? Well, the detainees inside of immigration detention centres have been living a life without freedom for years, just for being a migrant.

The US authorities have to release some of the detainees to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Australian authority won’t do the same.

The Human Rights Commission published its report “Immigration detention following visa refusal or cancellation under section 501 of the Migration Act 1958(Cth)” in August 2021 (https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/legal/publications/immigration-detention-following-visa-refusal-or-cancellation-under The former Commissioner Edward Santow made the following finding:

“Arbitrary detention

·        The decision by the Department not to refer four complainants to the Minister to consider exercising his discretionary powers under s 195A and s 197AB of the Migration Act resulted in their detention being arbitrary contrary to article 9(1) of the ICCPR.

·        The lack of assessment by the Department of whether the individual circumstances of four complainants indicated that they could be placed in less restrictive forms of detention was inconsistent with article 9(1) of the ICCPR.

·        The decision of the Minister not to consider exercising his discretionary powers under s 195A and s 197AB of the Migration Act in relation to two complainants may have resulted in their detention being arbitrary contrary to article 9(1) of the ICCPR.

·        The transfer and detention of one complainant to a state prison was arbitrary contrary to article 9(1) of the ICCPR.”

COVID-19 has made travel more difficult than before. There is no doubt it has made deportation of the detainees much harder. Legal and medical experts have urged the government to release detainees since the beginning of the pandemic, yet, to date, only a small number of vulnerable people have been released. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre also called on the government to act urgently to avoid COVID catastrophe in immigration centre.

Those who are detained inside immigration detention centres, are not criminals, but migrants. They did not break criminal laws, or if they did, they have served their time in a prison already. They breached migration laws, they overstayed a visa, they worked more than the hours allowed, they do not belong to this country, but being a migrant should not be sufficient enough to warrant imprisonment. This is someone’s life, not some political campaign.

If there has to be something positive from these lockdown periods we have all endured, it should be, now we know what kind of mental and psychological damage being alone at home can do to people, and we should take this opportunity to re-exam our policies on immigration detention facilities across the country.

Thank you!