Removal of Criminal Deportees
Media Release - DPS 71/2002
A further three 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 three men were escorted by Australasian Correctional Management officers aboard a commercial aircraft to Vietnam on 17 September 2002.
The three men had been held in immigration detention: one at Woodford Correctional Centre in QLD, one at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre in QLD and one at the Adelaide Remand Centre in SA.
"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.
There are 22 people awaiting deportation to Vietnam under the MOU.
This is the sixth 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 three Vietnamese nationals returned under the MOU on 10 January 2002, two men on 25 February 2002, four men on 3 April 2002, four men on 3 May 2002 and three men on 18 July 2002.
17 September 2002
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