UN condemns Australia

The Australian - 30 July 2002

Dear Sir/Madam,

The article "The UN condemns our detention policy" by Natasha Bita (The Australian 29 July 2002) is fundamentally inaccurate.

Australia does not detain refugees. Nor do we detain people because they seek asylum. We do detain people who arrive unlawfully whether they seek protection or not.

To suggest Australia detains people 'indefinitely' is clearly wrong.

Indeed, there remain only four unauthorised boat arrivals awaiting a primary decision on their application for protection - the remainder in detention have been found not to be refugees and are prolonging their detention by pursuing negative decisions through appeals and the courts.

To say our detention system is 'non-reviewable' is also untrue.

Australia's refugee determination process has been acknowledged as one of the world's best. When people have been refused refugee status by up to four separate authorities - namely this Department, the Refugee Review Tribunal, the Federal Court and the High Court - it means that their claims have been thoroughly and exhaustively tested. In almost 90 per cent of these appeal cases the Department's initial decision is upheld.

I would also like to take this opportunity to clarify some of the statistics quoted in your article that were either inaccurate or out-of-date:

• at 26/07/02 there were 1160 adults and 145 minors in detention in Australia

• there are currently 16 minors in alternative places of detention, including foster care

It was disappointing that nowhere in the article was there a reference to the Department's most recent statistics, that would have been readily available to your journalist, if requested.

Stewart Foster
Director
Public Affairs
Dept of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs