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July 19th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Updated
Video: Refugee detention policy ‘inhumane’: HRC chief
(7pm TV News NSW)
The departing head of the Australian Human Rights Commission has called on the Government to abandon mandatory detention for asylum seekers.
Commissioner Catherine Branson also called for the implementation of a better system for dealing with genuine refugees who are still in detention because they have not been granted security clearances by ASIO.
She told the ABC the practice of indefinite detention of those who fail security checks was “inhumane”.
Ms Branson says that for all the tough talk about asylum seekers, there is no evidence that Australia’s approach is an effective one.
“As far as I’m aware, our system is the strictest in the Western world and there’s no evidence that it works,” she said.
“It seems fairly clear, and international experts tell us, mandatory detention is not deterring people from coming to Australia, it’s not deterring people from travelling on dangerous boats to try and get to Australia.”
Ms Branson says the Government should reassess the need for mandatory detention.
“I think we just have to ask honestly the question is this serving any useful purpose, is it protecting the Australian public, or is it just something very expensive, very damaging to individuals that we can do without?” she said.
Humane solution
Audio:
Listen to Catherine Branson
(PM)
Ms Branson says Australia needs to find a humane solution to confirmed refugees stuck in mandatory detention because they have a negative ASIO assessment but cannot be returned to their home country because of refugee status.
“What I understand is that ASIO is not obliged to give these people who’ve come to Australia seeking asylum reasons for the finding they are a security risk, and because they don’t know the reasons they don’t effectively have access to judicial review,” she said.
“The [immigration] minister, as I understand it, has taken a blanket decision that no-one with an adverse security assessment will live in the community. All three of these things, I think, must change.”
Ms Branson says she has received 75 complaints from asylum seekers over mandatory detention in the past financial year, and in some cases she has recommended the Government pay compensation.
“It’s not uncommon for me to make a finding of arbitrary detention. My findings of arbitrary detention in these cases in recent years have not generally been accepted by the Government,” she said.
But Ms Branson says there have been some positive changes in recent years.
“I think the Department has made very significant steps in recent years to improve its culture which was once very regrettable,” she said.
“They are tasked with implementing a difficult policy and, as far as I can see, doing what they can to ensure humanity of our immigration detention.
“But there is a limit to what can be done to make humane something that is at its heart inhumane.”
Topics:
refugees,
human-trafficking,
human,
rights,
law-crime-and-justice,
immigration,
community-and-society,
federal-government,
government-and-politics,
australia
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