NJP questions smear of immigration detainees by Australian Border Force

National Justice Project Principal Solicitor George Newhouse has reacted with dismay to comments by Australian Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg that phones need to be removed from immigration detention centres as they will be “used for drug activities and escape plans.”

Newhouse said that “Mr Roman Quaedvlieg’s response is a continuation of the government’s policy of demoralising, demonising and criminalising asylum seekers and refugees. These phones are a lifeline to the world. I know from bitter experience how the Border Force whisk away pregnant rape victims in secret without access to communications and without the right to speak to lawyers. They have done it to my own clients.”

Newhouse said that “Most detainees aren’t escapees or drug dealers. The government needs to work at creating better systems rather than imposing a blanket ban.”

Newhouse also rejected Mr Quaedvlieg’s claim that “persons who have phones will be stood over for those phones.” Newhouse responded that “If the Australian Border Force is worried about standover men, perhaps they should be dealing with them and protecting vulnerable detainees from that form of intimidation, rather than taking away the rights of the vulnerable.

“This policy is a continuation of the Australian Border Force news blackout. The government has banned border force staff from speaking out against how asylum seekers are treated. Now they’re trying to enforce a complete news blackout by silencing the asylum seekers too. We are determined to continue our work in supporting the rights of the most vulnerable people in Australia,” Newhouse concluded.

Newhouse and the NJP have mounted a federal court case to compel the ABF to rescind its policy of confiscating phones in immigration detention centres.
Jane Salmon