The current scale of immigration detention operations on Christmas Island is unsustainable and more asylum seekers should be processed on the mainland, says the Commonwealth Ombudsman in a report released today.
The report, released today by Commonwealth and Immigration Ombudsman Allan Asher, offers an oversight of immigration processes on Christmas Island between October 2008 and September 2010. It says that, due to an increase in boat arrivals, there was now a serious issue with overcrowding on Christmas Island.
According to the Ombudsman, this overcrowding had lead to a deficiency in some of the services offered by the Department of Immigration:
At the time of the report, there were more than 2700 people detained on Christmas Island. Asher says that the Christmas Island detention facilities have a nominal operation capacity of 744 and that “the stage has been reached where the current scale of operations on Christmas Island is not sustainable.”
“Simply put, there are too many people detained at the combined Christmas Island immigration detention facilities,” he wrote.
Overcrowding was leading to hygiene problems, a lack of adequate phone, computer and internet access, as well as limited access to medical and dental services, the Ombudsman said. There were also a lack of facilities for lawyers and migration agents representing asylum seekers, while there were also questions about the quality of personnel employed to perform independent merits reviews. Activities designed to stave off depression and improve morale had also declined at one visit, although they had eventually improved.
To ease overcrowding, Asher urged DIAC to begin moving as many detainees as possible from Christmas Island to the Australian mainland. It was also recommended that DIAC address the shortage of facilities on Christmas Island as a “matter of urgency” so as to provide appropriate services for detainees requiring health services, especially those relating to mental health.
Length of processing times for asylum seekers were also queried — particularly the time it took to complete ASIO security assessments — with the Ombudsman noting that “there is no doubt that protracted waiting times raise on-island tension”. Asher said that a regular “holistic review” of processing was required and that times needed to be reduced.
DIAC said in its response to the report that they could not provide a “definitive timeframe for completion of security assessments” but were working on reducing processing times. ASIO have come under scrutiny from asylum seeker advocates recently for the amount of time taken to complete security assessments.
At one visit, the Ombudsman told DIAC cross-agency coordination was a possible burden on processing times, which then led to improvements in that area.
Asher also raised issues with a lack of interpreters on the island, particular a case in which a Sinhalese interpreter was being employed to interpret for a group of Tamils “despite the inadequacy of her interpretation” and another occasion where Dari speakers where being used as Hazaragi interpreters.
It was observed that there was tendency among staff to dismiss this issue as a “manifestation of ethnic tension” and that there had been at least one case where a Hazaragi speaker had been deprived of proper medical care because the Dari interpreter and the patient were unable to communicate with each other. Also, interpreters were not being used properly in merits review hearings and were sometimes providing advice to detainees instead of DIAC staff.
Asylum seekers who had been granted refugee status should be released from detention in a more timely manner, said Asher, with a suggestion offered that asylum seekers could be transferred to the mainland with strict reporting conditions.
It was not all criticism, however, with some praise offered to DIAC for improving services on Christmas Island. Asher said that longer postings for key DIAC staff — up to six months instead of three weeks — meant improved continuity in administration on the island. There had also been an increase in mental health staff, although a lack of accommodation for those services was also noted. The report approved of an increase in case managers for asylum seekers and the engaging of detainees to run some of the activities — including ESL classes.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding between Afghanistan and Australia came under a cloud after Kabul’s envoy to Australia, Amanullah Jayhoon, told The Australian that the pact only related to voluntary returns — not involuntary repatriation as Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has claimed.
The federal government’s plan for a regional processing centre on East Timor has also come under the spotlight, after a copy of its regional assessment centre concept document revealed up to 4,000 asylum seekers could be housed at the facility, raising questions about the tiny nation’s capacity to deal with such a large number of people.
Why on Earth do they risk expensive, sometimes dangerous, boat trips to Australia when there are countries so much easier and less expensive to reach? Don’t they know how terrible it is to be in Australia, by comparison with being in those other countries?
Norman, forgive me if you are being tongue in cheek and I am missing it! But in case you are asking those questions with sincerity, or in case others are thinking the same thing, let me offer some thoughts.
First: most of our recent boat arrivals have been from Afghanistan, and that does seem like a long way from us. Why dont the people who flee there just try to live in … Pakistan.. or Malysia.. or indonesia… (the countries they pass through to get to us)?
Well… they are not actually better options. And the first one of them that is prepared to give asylum seekers refugee status, is Indonesia… but even their track record is not good. If a family get refugee status in Indonesia, they are not allowed to work for money or send their children to school! And while they wait there on the UN refugee list, they find out that there is a 20 year wait before betting placed somewhere in the world. Not a very good future for a desparate family. The boat ride to Australia looks very tempting for such a family.
What could help would be for the world community to try to get Malaysia and Pakistan to be more open to refugees, and for Indonesia to allow refugees to work and send their kids to school. As it is now, there is very little hope for them.
It is of course, more complex than the few points noted above, but what I have attemtped to summarise should be weighed: if I was in that situation with my family I imagine that I would do the same thing. Head off to get picked up by the Australians. At least they process their people on Christmas island within a year or so. And we will be fed and have shelter till that happens….
A joint parliamentary committee wrote a report way back in 2000 stating that all asylum seekers had to be flown to the mainland because Christmas Island was utterly unsuitable.
Howard built that thing out there and Gillard and co. claim they have to use what Michael Danby called “a concentration camp” simply because it is a $350 million prison.
It costs over $400 million per annum to run and to torment innocent people.
Most out there are Afghans, Iraqis and Iranians with many Sri Lankans who are trapped in a hotel California – they can check out but never leave, or in this case they get checked in for life for no reason.
The interpreter problem is not new. Most of the Hazara way back in December 2001 were called liars because they had pashtun translators who lied about them.
Only one family of Hazara were ever deported from the mainland – they were trafficked out of the country by DIAC on false documents and dumped in the wrong country because they embarrassed that coward Ruddock.
As for the applications – UNHCR and DIAC records show that in spite of being a captive audience almost no Afghan claims are being lodged still
1170 all year with 2391 still in detention on 3 December.
Few cases are lodged yet they are captives.
And it only takes a week tops to find out if someone has a prima facie claim to asylum.
And that only means they ask. Because everyone has the right to seek asylum they are asylum seekers under the law and therefore all legitimate asylum seekers.
In short the government and DIAC continue the lies and the media are too stupid to ask questions.
Like Brandis daring to talk about detention conditions.
Australia’s treatment of refugees is not humane, it is also illegal. It is one of the main reasons why disaffected ALP members are deserting their party in droves, many of them going to the Greens, who do have a humane asylum seeker policy. So our foreign policy and where our troops go to die is determined for us by the Yanks, and our asylum seeker policy is determined by the shock jocks, and our economic policy is determined by resource billionaires. Is there any function left for an elected government?
How about cancelling mandatory detention and those stupid American wars to pay for flood and cyclone damage.
@Jim – Nasty Norman is as base an individual as you are ever likely to find. An unapologetic right wing ‘stop the boats’ ignorant, selfish bucket of bile that has never and will never offer any comment tongue in cheek. Had a go or three at trying to find the needle of humanity in the haystack of hatred he represents and quite frankly have given up. Don’t get baited he feeds on it and gets worse and worse.