Removal of Criminal Deportees
Media Release - DPS 28/2002
A further 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 officers aboard a commercial aircraft to Vietnam on 3 May 2002.
The four men had been held in immigration detention: one at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, one at Silverwater Remand Centre in NSW, one at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre in QLD and one at the Perth Immigration Detention 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 27 people awaiting deportation to Vietnam under the MOU.
This is the fourth 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, three men on 10 January 2002 and four men on 3 April 2002.
3 May 2002
For more information contact DIMIA Public Affairs,
02 6264 2244
(AH) 0419 442 000