Removal of Criminal Deportees
Media Release - DPS 19/2002
Four criminals have been deported from Australia to Vietnam under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Vietnamese Government, the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs announced today.
The four men were escorted by Australasian Correctional Management and Departmental officers aboard a commercial aircraft to Vietnam on 3 April 2002.
The four men had been held in immigration detention: two at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, one at Parklea Correctional Centre in NSW and one in the Adelaide Remand Centre.
"As immigration detention centres are not suitable for the accommodation of some criminal deportees due to concern for the safety of families, visitors and staff in the centres and risk to the community in case of escape, it has been necessary to detain some of them, as a last resort, in state correctional facilities," a Departmental spokesman said.
The four men are among 31 people awaiting deportation to Vietnam under the MOU.
This is the third removal of Vietnamese nationals under the MOU with the Vietnamese Government, which was signed on 15 June 2001.
The removal of these men follows the deportation of two Vietnamese nationals
returned under the MOU on 25 February 2002 and three men on 10 January 2002.
3 April 2002
For more information contact DIMIA Public Affairs,
02 6264 2244
(AH) 0419 442 000