Labor ducks High Court decision with brutal powers to deport people offshore and further punish refugees and people seeking asylum

MEDIA RELEASE

Human rights legal experts and refugee advocates have slammed the Albanese Government for attempting to circumvent the High Court’s ruling yesterday that harmful restrictions on people released from detention are unjustifiable forms of punishment.

Instead, the Government has opted to introduce sweeping new legislation that would reimpose invasive curfews and ankle bracelets, give the Government powers to deport people to unknown third countries and risks sending people to places where they could face serious harm. 

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Human Rights Law Centre, Refugee Advice and Casework Service and Refugee Council of Australia are deeply concerned the new legislation places refugees at risk of return to unimaginable harm, will result in indefinite family separation and blatantly undermines the fundamental principles of equality before the law.

If passed through the Parliament, the Government’s new legislation will:

• Reintroduce invasive surveillance and monitoring conditions that infringe people’s liberty and personal dignity

• Create an expanded regime of offshore warehousing for people who the High Court has ordered must be released from indefinite immigration detention

• Allow the Albanese Government to ignore its international obligations and expose refugees to the risk of being returned to places where they face harm

• Separate people from their families and communities, preventing them from ever returning to their homes. 

Experts have condemned the clear attempt by the Albanese Government to absolve Australia of its international responsibilities and domestic civil liability, calling out the legislation for undermining the High Court ruling and further punishing refugees, people seeking asylum and migrants. 

The new legislation also reintroduces elements of the widely-criticised Migration Amendment (Removal and Other Measures) Bill 2024which stalled at the Senate in May.

Quotes attributable to:

Jana Favero, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s Deputy CEO: 
“Yesterday’s High court decision was an opportunity for the Albanese Government to respect the rule of law and give people an opportunity to rebuild their lives in the community just like everyone else. Unfortunately it’s not surprising that Labor has put politics ahead of people by demonising and punishing refugees, people seeking asylum and migrants. We are a proud multicultural community and everybody should be treated equally, no matter where they were born.

“It’s shocking and outrageous how far this legislation goes. The harm of offshore detention and sending people to third countries is well known. Despite this, the Government is knowingly looking to extend our use of detention – onshore and offshore.” 

Sanmati Verma, Human Rights Law Centre's Legal Director:
“The High Court sent a clear message yesterday: it is time to stop endlessly demonising and punishing this tiny group of people. By this point, they have been triply punished: by a criminal sentence, an indefinite period in detention and oppressive monitoring and curfew conditions. Now the government wants to warehouse people in unspecified third countries. 

“Many of the people released from detention have families in the community, and have spent their formative years in Australia. They are struggling to rebuild their lives after years of hardship. They should be allowed that basic dignity – just as any of us should be." 

Sarah Dale, Refugee Advice and Casework Service's Centre Director:
“Yet again we are in the position of celebrating a resumption of dignity in the Courts, only to be met with our Government insisting on the denial of rights of people seeking asylum and refugees. Australia’s offshore regime has been a failure at best, and at its worst – a system of cruelty, irreparable harm and suffering beyond belief, to see its inclusion in yet another cruel form, despite all that we know is reprehensible. 

People are here for the very real reason of the harm they fear in their home countries, a fear so insurmountable as to have suffered in an indefinite detention regime, a fear that our laws and processes have recognised as well-founded. To give power as to cast such a finding of fear aside is unconscionable.” 

Graham Thom, Refugee Council of Australia's Advocacy Coordinator:
“This legislation does not provide durable solutions for individuals who have served their time, including those who remain in need of protection. Rather, it would appear to offer a dreadful ‘Sophie’s choice’ of either indefinite detention in Australia or transfer to countries like Nauru where again they could face indefinite detention.”

Hannah Dickinson, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre's Principal Solicitor:
“Today, the Albanese Government has introduced laws that entrench visa conditions the High Court condemned just yesterday as unjustifiable and unconstitutional, and that go far further. Not only do these laws expand the disturbing warehousing of people offshore, at risk of the worst forms of harm, they explicitly attempt to absolve the Government and unnamed third countries of responsibility for the wrongs done to people in the process.

“The refugees subjected to this cruel regime are people with families and communities, many who have been in Australia most of their lives. Like any other person, they have the right to liberty, bodily integrity, family unity, and privacy – and to rebuild their lives. But unlike people fortunate enough to be Australian citizens, they are instead subjected to repeated and devastating punishment. We call on the Albanese Government to end this brutal and indefensible cycle.”

-ENDS-

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