Thread by @Kon__K

We want all refugees in onshore detention centres & hotel prisons to know the @ASRC1 are still fighting for your rights. Today we lodged 16 page submission to Senate Committee to try & stop a dangerous new amendment. Here is a thread on why this must be stopped. Please read & RT.

What is Dutton trying to do? He is trying to get passed Migration Amendment) Prohibiting Items in Immigration Detention (Facilities) Bill 2020. Here are all the reasons it's dangerous, must be rejected completely and would severely curtail the rights of refugees in detention 2/20

It is a Bill which has no valid purpose, as existing powers are more than sufficient for the safe and orderly management of detention centres. Its main purposes are to remove
detainees’ access to devices with internet connectivity, which are their ‘life-line’ to family.. 3/20

Community support, lawyers, medical assistance; prevent public scrutiny/accountability for what is occurring within our detention centres.

Would give the Minister wide powers to impose ‘blanket’ prohibition of ordinary items from detainees even if not for unlawful purposes 4/20

Bill gives police-like powers to ‘authorised officers' & unnamed ‘other persons’ to conduct personal searches without any suspicion, to conduct strip searches based on the low legal threshold of ‘reasonable suspicion’, allows the use of dogs to conduct searches of detention 5/20

facilities, incl close proximity to detainees

The Bill will inflict additional suffering and cruelty upon detainees and prevent public scrutiny of treatment in detention centres

Personal searches can be conducted without any basis for suspicion. This is a licence to harass 6/20

detainees. Unfettered search powers resulting in constant, intrusive searches of persons and belongings, are likely to provoke frustration and an increase in the use of
force in detention centres. 7/20

As stated above dogs can be used to search facilities, including in the presence of detainees, potentially a terrifying experience, especially to those with histories of torture and trauma.

Strip searches can be conducted on the basis of only ‘reasonable suspicion’. 8/20

Again Ministerial powers to prohibit items are wide & can include commonplace & ordinarily innocuous items, such as telephones and devices with internet connectivity, which are used appropriately by the vast majority of detainees and vital to their ability to stay connected 9/20

Seizure of personal telephones etc will remove the primary means by which detainees can maintain family relations, support networks, get access to independent medical assistance, seek urgent legal assistance, & lodge complaints & evidence of their mistreatment in detention 10/20

The measures proposed are disproportionate to their stated
objectives and to the risks posed in detention centres. The proposed measures involve restrictions on human rights which are not justifiable. Legal thresholds lack meaning in a system where detention authorities/ 11/20

officers are not subject to any effective oversight or accountability measures. Most of these intrusive powers can be delegated to unnamed ‘other persons’ as ‘assistants’, further widening the potential for abuse & loosening any
vestige of accountability for these powers. 12/20

The @ASRC1 in summary has recommended that the Bill be rejected in it's entirety as amendments cannot cure the bills false premises & invalid purposes. Again they are:

(a) We already have a lack of accountability & oversight of immigration detention

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(b) Bill will silence real - time, critical cries for help.

(c) Will harm the mental health of detainees & cut their connections to family

(d) No valid justification for the bill, more than 60% of people in detention are refugees or people from displacement backgrounds 14/20

(e) Assurance that the Bill will not be applied in a ‘blanket’ fashion is baseless

(f) Claim that existing powers are insufficient, is without basis

(g) Dissenting Committee Members’ previous concerns remain unaddressed 15/20

Given the lack of any proper legal accountability framework for ensuring minimum standards in detention centres, this Bill will create even more unchecked power/more abuse in our detention centres

This Bill would make an already dire human rights crisis, even more critical 16/20

Lack of proportionality and proper targeting of the restrictive measures proposed in this Bill give a clear
indication that its main objects are to further isolate & constrict the rights of all detainees as a system
of collective punishment within an already unaccountable 17/20

framework which violates a wide range of civil rights and disproportionately affects asylum seekers and refugees, contrary to Australia’s international protection obligations. Incidents of ‘use of force’ and consequent abuses,
will likely escalate even higher 18/20

The @ASRC1 main recommendations in light of the above:

(a) This Bill be rejected in its entirety. Amendments cannot cure this Bill’s false premises & invalid purposes.

(b) That all refugees and people seeking asylum currently
held in detention, be immediately released..19/20

& provided with safe housing and adequate funded support.

(c) That independent inquiry into immigration detention be established to examine legality, impact, harm, costs caused by admin detention, as well as any corruption that has been allowed to settle within centres. 20/20