January 31, 2024
Two more former detainees released from detention after a landmark High Court ruling were rearrested over the Christmas period for breaching curfew.
Seven of the about 150 noncitizens, including some sex offenders and other violent criminals, have now been arrested since being let out of immigration detention, after the High Court overturned a 20-year precedent that allowed those with no chance of being deported to be locked up indefinitely.
Australian Federal Police confirmed Afghan man, Mohammed Ali Nadari, 45, was arrested and charged in Merrylands, NSW, after he allegedly breached curfew obligations between December 15 and December 28. He will appear in court on January 19. This is the second time he has been arrested since leaving detention. The first time was for possession of cannabis.
Separately, an Iranian man, 38, was arrested and charged on December 24 after he was found at a property in Perth, allegedly breaching curfew.
Both face the prospect of a maximum five-year jail stint or a $93,900 fine under the laws passed in December, which human rights lawyers have criticised as overly onerous and discriminatory.
The legislation also gave the government the ability to apply to a court to have the "worst of the worst" of the cohort locked up again if they are deemed an unacceptable risk to the community.
The federal government last month created a board of experts to recommend which members of the cohort are so dangerous they should be sent into preventative detention.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said Labor should have used the laws already.
"Former detainees are now routinely committing crimes against Australians when they should have been behind bars. The Minister for Home Affairs [Clare O'Neil] needs to direct her department to lodge applications with the courts before any more crimes are committed," he said.
A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Andrew Giles did not comment on whether the government had lodged any preventative detention applications with the courts.
Other members of the released group who have since been rearrested including Afghan refugee and convicted sex offender Aliyawar Yawari who allegedly indecently assaulted a woman at a hotel in Adelaide, and Emran Dad, a child sex ringleader charged after he breached Victorian laws by contacting a teen through social media.
