DIMIA has done some very bad things over the last ten years. I know, I've seen them first hand. Under the cold hand of Ruddock, they had free reign to play god with people's lives. DIMIA turned a blind eye while the detention centre contractors - ACM and then GSL - did everything they could to break their inmates.
Some did break. Some will be fixed but many will not. Not ever.
But, hey! They say what comes round...over the next year or two we're going to see a tide of cases in the courts as these abused people find they have a voice - and legal rights. In the past, those that have been released have been effectivley silenced through the hanging sword of the temporary visa. Speak up? Back home you go...
Now the media - and even the community - are kind of sort of halfway watching DIMIA and what it gets up to. I hope that means the end of the mindless cruelty of DIMIA's dearly loved forced deportations.
Not pretty affairs. Some of them ended in death. A few brave souls are even trying to hold the government accountable for their actions.
On the bright side, I look forward to Vanstone's cringing, ducking and weasel wording as the abused have their day in court. The following is no an exhaustive list - in fact it was done in less than an hour of searching. There are many more cases out there. In the weeks to come, I'll bring them here.
1. Cornelia Rau8 months on, the negotiations continue. The federal government and lawyers for the mentally ill woman wrongly locked up in immigration detention appear to be caught in a stand-off over how to compensate her.
The Minister claims Ms Rau's solicitors are not communicating with them. The solicitors continue to produce correspondance that shows they have tried time and again.
Finally, last week, the lawyers took the only course left open to them:
"In light of continuing silence for the commonwealth there appears to be little alternative left to Ms Rau's guardian but to commence proceedings for compensation in the normal course."
To add insult to injury, the Australian Greens tried unsuccessfully to move a motion in the Senate last week calling on the government to fully compensate Ms Rau.
For reasons that are best left to the imagination, Labor senators crossed the floor to vote with the government against the motion.
Realising its mistake, Labor asked permission to retake the vote, but the outcome was the same and the motion was lost 32 votes to 34.
Despite this, I'm punting Ms Rau will get a quietly hefty settlement when the dust has settled.
2. Vivian SolonHer lawyers are seeking more than $1 million in compensation and adequate care and housing.
Former Federal Court judge Marcus Einfeld has said that Ms Solon was likely to require substantial health care for the rest of her life.
"She's not going to be a multimillionaire. That's just pathetic. She's going to be a person like anyone else who has been injured. She will have compensation that will enable her to survive.
"She's a disabled person in a wheelchair with a lot of difficulties … If she can ever drive a car again it will have to be adapted for a wheelchair."
3. Shayan Badraie$400,000 payout for damaged detention boy
March 3, 2006 - 9:47AM
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/400000-payout-for-detention-boy/2006/03/03/1141191821149.html
The Federal Government is to pay $400,000 compensation to an 11-year-old Iranian boy who suffered psychological harm in two Australian detention centres, a spokeswoman for the boy's lawyers says.
Shayan Badraie sued the Immigration Department on the grounds he was psychologically harmed while living in Woomera and Villawood detention centres between 2000 and 2002.
After months of hearings in the Supreme Court in Sydney, the boy's legal team, Maurice Blackburn Cashman lawyers, accepted a settlement offer of $400,000 made yesterday by government solicitors, the spokeswoman said.
The settlement is due to be ratified in the same court today.
The spokeswoman said the family, which lives in Sydney, has also this week been granted permanent Australian residency visas.
4. But there's more -
there are literally hundreds of children in Australia who have been substantially damaged by their time in detention. I imagine we'll see a string of cases. I hope the media doesn't tire...
5. Mr X and Mr YIn a case that echoes the Rau scandal, tWO men were lost in Australia's immigration detention system for several years while officials tried unsuccessfully to identify them.
On Dec 1 last year, Commonwealth Ombudsman John McMillan criticised the slowness of immigration officials in investigating the men's backgrounds and called for their urgent release into the community while the inquiries continued.
Two months later, one of the detainees, an Asian man known as Mr X, was identified and released into the community. The other man, known as Mr Y, has also since been identified and may be deported. He remains in the Villawood detention centre.
Mr Y won't be a problem as he won't be here - but if Mr X has any nouse, he'll ask nicely for an apology. Good luck.
6. Robert JovicicThis is ripe - in June 2004, Australian permanent resident Jovicic was deported to Serbia for being 'of bad character'. The Serbian Government refused to recognise him as a citizen, leaving the bereft, mentally ill man — who had never been to Serbia before and barely spoke the language — stateless and destitute. He was unable to work or obtain medical treatment or welfare services.
He camped outside the Australian Embassy for months, his sister here in Australia pleaded, the media ran some pictures and made it clear the story wasn't going to die. Vanstone denied any wrong doing, waited the appropriate length of time to show she was thinking hard and then declared he could come back. With any luck, Jovicic's lawyer's will pursue the department for compensation - for frost bite if nothing else.
7. Ali TastanAli Tastan, a paranoid schizophrenia who had lived in Australia for nearly 30 years, was deported to Turkey in January 2003 after serving seven years in jail for malicious wounding, arson and drug offences.
He is now homeless and is wandering the streets of Ankara. He has nowhere to live and no source of income other than his old age pension. His parents are saving
$30 a fortnight from their pensions to send to him. The decision to deport Mr Tastan was taken despite an Administrative Appeals tribunal ruling against it.
Mr Tastan's parents live in Sydney. They say his mental illness is deteriorating and fear he will die in poverty on the streets of Ankara.
8. The Le BrothersThen there are the two Vietnamese gentleman - criminals yes, but they served their time and they were permanent Australian residents (though that term is starting to have a hollow sound to it). The two half brothers, Hiep Van Le and Hiep Em Van Le, were deported on the grounds of bad character. Marion Le (not related) is an immigration agent representing the two men. "They came here as young men, they spent their... or certainly the 15-year-old spent his formative years here. We, as a country took him onboard with all of the problems that came with him, associated with being a young person out of a refugee situation, having seen his mother, you know, die, no family members left to really care for him in Vietnam."
Marion Le visited the Le brothers in Vietnam. She says they may be entitled to a compensation payout and points to a Federal Court ruling that could help their cause. That ruling, in July 2005, found that immigrants such as the Le brothers, who entered Australia before
1984 and remained here until 1994, hold what is known as an absorbed person's visa, meaning they have the rights of an Australian citizen.The ruling came in the case of Stefan Nystrom, who had his permanent visa revoked on character grounds following a jail term for various offences. Nystrom arrived in Australia as a baby in 1974.In the federal court ruling, the judges said that by deporting people of bad character, Australia was presuming it could export its problems elsewhere.Marion Le says there are hundreds of cases of this nature which need to be addressed.
All right, we're not talking about model citizens here in all cases - but when a Government starts shipping long term residents out because they're on the wrong side of the law, we've got a problem, folks.
