Immigration detention centres in Australia have released dozens of foreign-born convicted criminals into the community after the High Court ruled indefinite detention unconstitutional. The bulk of those allowed to walk free have previously been refused visas on character grounds.
Australia’s left-wing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese left the country soon after the release for yet another overseas trip after conceding in Parliament no immediate plan existed to deal with the flood of criminals.
Under his current Labor government net overseas migration (NOM) into Australia continues to break all records.
Over the September quarter, there were 145,550 net permanent and long-term arrivals into Australia. This was a record for a September quarter and more than double the 69,640 that arrived in the same quarter of 2022.
Now more are being added to that number.
The high security main gate of Melbourne Immigration Detention Centre in Broadmeadows where refugees awaiting review are detained. There are several layers of gates to gain access to the facility and 24 hr surveillance. (Mridula Amin for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
A paedophile who raped a 10-year-old boy, a hit man who blew up a pregnant woman with explosives and a sex predator who attacked elderly women are among the criminals allowed into the community, News.com.au reports.
All were released after the High Court ruled that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful where there is “no real prospect” that a person’s removal is “reasonably practicable in the foreseeable future.”
The court is yet to release the reasons behind its ruling last week that overturned a 2004 precedent that stateless people could be detained indefinitely.
File/Left-wing Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese departed Wednesday on his 18th overseas trip since his election in May, 2022. He left as controversy raged over the High Court decision that ruled indefinite immigration detention unconstitutional. (David Gray/Getty Images, file)
Canberra had argued against the release of the foreign and stateless detainees whom Australia does not want to resettle and other countries refuse to accept. It lost the case.
Conservative coalition opposition lawmakers called them “hardcore criminals” and accused the Labour government of endangering the public by releasing them.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles confirmed the released foreigners included three murderers and several sex offenders.
“The decision of the High Court which requires release effects very, very serious offenders,” Giles told Parliament.
AP reports one of those convicted of murder is Sirul Azhar Umar, a former police officer who was sentenced by a Malaysian court in 2015 to be hanged over the death of a Mongolian woman whose body was dismembered with military-grade explosives.
The 50-year-old had fled to Australia before he was sentenced in absentia and had been held in detention for nine years until the High Court decision last week. Australia cannot extradite anyone to a country where that person could face capital punishment.
File/Pro-refugee activists call for an end to detention of those who fail to gain lawful entry to Australia. (WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)
Details of the other two convicted of murder were not available.
One known case amongst the freed is Afghan-born Aliyawar Yawari, previously described as a “violent sex predator who attacks elderly women in their home.”
The 65-year-old moved into a motel in the west coast capital city of Perth after being released from detention, the Australian newspaper reported.
He was convicted of multiple offenses against three women between October 2013 and December 2014, the newspaper detailed.
The High Court case was brought by a member of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority, identified in court as NZYQ, who was convicted of raping a 10-year-old boy in Sydney and sentenced to five years in prison.
He went to indefinite immigration detention after prison and was not deported because he faced the death penalty in his homeland. Now he has been set free by the decision.
The Associated Press contributed to this report