Removal of Criminal Deportees Under International Agreement
Media Release - DPS 85/2002
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 confirmed today.
Australasian Correctional Management officers aboard commercial aircraft escorted the three men to Vietnam in separate removals on 29, 30 and 31 October 2002.
The removal of the three men included the first criminal deportee to be returned to the Hanoi region under the MOU with the Vietnamese Government.
The men had been held in immigration detention: one at Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre in Victoria, one at Wolston Correctional Centre in Queensland and one at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in New South Wales.
"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 a further 22 people awaiting deportation to Vietnam under the MOU.
This brings to 22 the number of removals of Vietnamese nationals under the MOU with the Vietnamese Government, which was signed in June 2001.
These most recent removals follow the deportation of three Vietnamese nationals returned under the MOU on 17 September 2002; 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.
1 November 2002
Media inquiries: Public Affairs (02) 6264 2244