Report: Breaches of Human Rights of Six Asylum Seekers Transferred from Immigration Detention Centres to State Prisons

The Attorney General has tabled in Federal Parliament a report prepared by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission concerning breaches of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by the Department of Immigration Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs, (DIMIA), on behalf of the Commonwealth.

In Report No. 21, "Report of an inquiry into a complaint by six asylum seekers concerning their transfer from immigration detention centres to State prisons and their detention in those prisons", the Commission found:

(a) the transfer of one asylum seeker from an immigration detention centre to a State prison was an act by DIMIA which was inconsistent with and contrary to the asylum seekers' human rights recognised in article 9(1) of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR);

(b) the decision to continue the detention of two of the asylum seekers in Western Australian State prisons was an act by DIMIA which was inconsistent with and contrary to their human rights recognised in article 9(1) of the ICCPR;

(c) the decision of DIMIA to transfer one of the asylum seekers to a state prison from a detention centre, and the failure by DIMIA to consider the rape of the asylum seeker during monthly reviews of his imprisonment, were acts by the Commonwealth which were inconsistent with and contrary to his human rights recognised in article 10(1) of the ICCPR;

(d) the failure by DIMIA to provide separate treatment for the six asylum seekers while they were held in immigration detention in NSW and West Australian State prisons was inconsistent with and contrary to their human rights recognised in article 10(2)(a) of the ICCPR.

Of the six complainants one was deported and one removed from Australia in April 2000.

The Commission made a number of recommendations in the report to prevent a repetition of the relevant acts and a continuation of the relevant practices. The Department has responded to those recommendations, and the responses are included in the Report, which is available on the Commission's website at

http://www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/human_rights_reports/hrc_report_2 1.html