Hundreds of convicted criminals are being held alongside vulnerable asylum seekers in Australian detention centres, including the Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre (MIDC).
Figures released last week to a Senate inquiry revealed that on April 30 there were 448 people in immigration detention centres who had been convicted of criminal offences.
Four had been convicted of homicide or related offences, 70 of sexual assault and 165 of assault or other violent offences.
Star Weekly reported in April that violent criminals had been terrorising asylum seekers at MIDC, forcing them into hiding inside the centre.
Footscray police have been called to assaults and other incidents at the centre as gangs of criminals awaiting deportation have set upon and threatened to kill asylum seekers.
Advocates are calling for asylum seekers to be separated from gangs of “501s” – detainees being deported under Section 501 of the Migration Act for failing a “character test” after being sentenced to 12 or more months imprisonment.
The advocates fear that new powers being sought by the government to manage these “high-risk detainees”, allowing security guards to cause grievous bodily harm if they “reasonably believe” it is necessary to protect life or prevent injury, are a recipe for disaster.
Kon Karapanagiotidis, chief executive of Footscray’s Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said the government had failed to put adequate systems in place to send people back to their home countries if they didn’t meet the character test.
“As a result, detention centres are being filled to the point of overcrowding with disgruntled former prisoners, which puts asylum seekers in a very difficult situation,” he said.
“The government should deal with the real problems in its detention centres – asylum seekers forced to live in crowded conditions alongside convicted criminals with little information or certainty about their future – rather than giving guards the green light to manage the situation through violence and fear.”
The Australian Border Force (ABF) said in a statement that detention service providers took the safety and security of those in immigration detention seriously.
