Graeme Edgerton: How a human rights boss gloated about the High Court decision freeing criminal detainees – as a third is arrested since being released back into the community
A senior member of the Human Rights Commission has welcomed the Supreme Court ruling that overturned the indefinite detention, as it now appears three immigration detainees have been arrested since their release.
The Supreme Court ruled on November 8 that indefinite immigration detention is not constitutional if there is “no realistic prospect” that deportation “becomes practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future.”
The decision resulted in the release of at least 148 people – including a number of dangerous criminals – whose detention met this condition.
Graeme Edgerton, deputy general counsel of the Human Rights Commission, welcomed the controversial legal decision in papers tabled in the Senate on Monday.
Graeme Edgerton (right), deputy general counsel of the Human Rights Commission, welcomed the Supreme Court's ruling that indefinite immigration detention was unlawful
“This is an astonishing outcome that will have a practical impact for up to 92 people currently in immigration detention and will enable many former detainees to claim compensation for unlawful detention,” he wrote to his colleagues on November 9, according to the Western Australian.
“Just as importantly, it will change the way Australia deals with asylum seekers in the future.”
Mr Edgerton said the committee had long fought for the outcome of the court's decision.
'These types of important decisions don't happen in a vacuum. They are built on incremental work by human rights defenders at the commission,” he wrote.
'It seems likely that we can at least expect relevant ministers to intervene at an earlier stage to grant visas to detainees or place them in community detention arrangements.
'It is important that the committee remains involved in ongoing monitoring of how the court's ruling is being implemented.'
Three immigration detainees have now been arrested following the November ruling.
Emran Dad, 33, was arrested on Tuesday in Dandenong, southeast of Melbourne, for allegedly contacting minors on social media and breaching his reporting obligations.
Afghan refugee Aliyawar Yawari was deemed a 'danger to the Australian community' by a South Australian judge in 2016 after attacks on three elderly women in 2013 and 2014
He was charged with nine counts of failing to comply with his reporting obligations as a registered sex offender. He has also been charged with trespassing.
Dad, who is from Afghanistan, is alleged to have run a prostitution ring targeting underage girls in state care and was jailed for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in exchange for cigarettes.
Victoria Police told Ny Breaking Australia: 'Police today arrested a man after he breached his reporting obligations as a registered sex offender.
'The 33-year-old was arrested in Dandenong this morning without incident. The police are currently interrogating him.
Victoria Police can confirm the man is among those recently released following a Supreme Court ruling. Victoria Police is always proactive in addressing community risks posed by those who would commit criminal acts.”
Dad's arrest comes as it was revealed on Monday evening that Australian authorities had arrested a further two released prisoners.
Mohammed Ali Nadari was arrested in western Sydney last weekend, just six days after being released following a controversial High Court ruling.
He has a criminal history, including serious crimes involving violence, sex and firearms. Nadari was arrested this weekend for drug offences.
Afghan refugee Aliyawar Yawari, 65, was arrested at the Pavlos Motel in Pooraka in Adelaide's north on Saturday and charged with indecently assaulting a female guest.
Yawari remains in court.
Home Secretary Clare O'Neil (pictured) has come under fire over the court ruling and the opposition has called for her resignation
Pressure is mounting on Anthony Albanese to sack Home Secretary Clare O'Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles over the detention debacle.
Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said on Tuesday: “The time has come for the Prime Minister to do the right thing and ask for these ministers to resign, and if they don't, he should sack them.”
The pressure to turn heads has only increased since it emerged that the mass release could have been avoided if the Labor government had released just one detainee: the Rohingya pedophile known as NZYQ, who has been in custody since serving a prison sentence served for child abuse. abuse and on whose case the Supreme Court challenge was based.
Tehan accused the government of failing to adequately prepare for the possible Supreme Court ruling that indefinite immigration detention would be illegal.
“We would have made sure in the months leading up to the Supreme Court ruling that we looked at what legislation we could put in place to keep the community safe,” he said.
'It was warned that there was a real fear that these people would reoffend and unfortunately it appears that this has happened.'
Under the federal government's proposed amendments, preventive detention orders would apply to those released, including murderers and sex offenders, and are based on similar measures for high-risk terrorist offenders, Ms O'Neil said.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the coalition was likely to support the laws.
“If the government has adequate measures in place to protect Australians, then we will support those measures and see what they have to say,” he told reporters.
“If we see a bad bill, we won't support it.”