UWS civil liberties expert raises concerns about refugees detained by ASIO's powers | StreetCorner.com.au

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UWS civil liberties expert raises concerns about refugees detained by ASIO's powers

UWS civil liberties expert raises concerns about refugees detained by ASIO's powers

by University of Western Sydney Media Unit
09/07/2010

As the government weighs up its refugee policy, concerns about the arbitrary powers held by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) are being raised after recent media reports suggest 120 to 150 asylum seekers are being detained in a state of limbo because the intelligence organisation is unable to decide whether they are security threats.

University of Western Sydney civil liberties expert, Associate Professor Michael Head, from the School of Law, says the current situation highlights the issue that refugees are being denied their right to natural justice - the basic legal right to procedural fairness.

"In recent months, the government denied protection visas to numbers of Sri Lankan Tamils, who face deportation without any right to know, or challenge, why ASIO considers them a threat to Australia's national security," says Associate Professor Head.

"This situation adds to the criticism of last week's deportation of a Sydney Muslim cleric, Sheikh Mansour Leghaei, who was also classified by ASIO as a national security threat without being told why."

Some of the refugees, mostly Sri Lankans or Burmese Rohingyas, have been in detention for more than 12 months waiting for ASIO security clearances. They form a sizeable part of the more than 3,800 people inside Australia's immigration detention centres.

Associate Professor Head says Sheikh Leghaei, who lived in Australia for 16 years with his family, went all the way to the High Court in unsuccessful legal bids to require ASIO to explain its adverse assessment.

"His saga is reminiscent of Franz Kafka's novel, The Trial, in which the accused man, Josef K, is arrested, prosecuted and ultimately executed for a crime that is never identified."

"In 2005, a Federal Court judge rejected Leghaei's objection that he had been denied natural justice because he had not been told of any allegations contained in his ASIO file, and thus denied the opportunity to respond to them," says Associate Professor Head.

The judge ruled that Leghaei could not be given even a summary of the accusations against him and an entire section of the judgment, of unknown length, was also kept confidential on ASIO's advice.

The case was appealed in 2007 and three Federal Court judges upheld the ruling, and ordered that about one-third of their own judgment be blacked out in the published version."

Associate Professor Head says even Australian citizens can be jeopardised by adverse ASIO assessments.

"Most recently, Shyloh Jayne Giddins, a Sydney mother of two, was detained by the authorities in Yemen for more than 3 weeks after the government cancelled her passport on the basis of an ASIO report."

"In Giddins's case, ASIO issued a statement of reasons, alleging that she 'has an extremist interpretation of Islam and her activities in Yemen are prejudicial to security'. ASIO refused to elaborate. Its statement nevertheless indicated that Giddins's religious views were regarded as objectionable."

"In effect, ASIO's powers have become legally unchallengeable," says Associate Professor Head.

"This is a grave worry, especially given that ASIO and the other intelligence agencies were involved in the false claims of 'weapons of mass destruction' used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq."