Australia: Refugees in Indefinite Detention, Endless Incarceration

‘Daniel Flitton, senior correspondent for The Age, sees the lack of interest in Australia’s novel approach to indefinite detention for refugees as unfathomable. Concerns about metadata retention, and the elasticity of surveillance powers, may have been registered on the Australian pulse, but “People don’t much care that in Australia a confidential judgment by ASIO has condemned more than 30 people to endless incarceration.”

Earlier this year, the same paper reported that, “without fanfare or public notice, 10 men slipped recently into the Australian community. They are now tasting a freedom denied to some of them for up to five years” (The Age, Jan 10). According to sources, “ASIO had assessed the men, most of whom were Tamil, to be a threat to national security, but in the past few weeks this decision has been reversed.” Such is the arbitrariness of bureaucratic judgment.’

Read more: Australia: Refugees in Indefinite Detention, Endless Incarceration