Well. Things are not going so well for our friends over at the Australian Border Force right now. Firstly, head honcho Roman Quaedvlieg has been on leave, allegedly over an inappropriate relationship with a staffer in her early 20s. Now, the so-called ‘operational arm’ of the Immigration Department has confessed that it… sent at least one Australian citizen to Christmas Island accidentally.
This was briefly mentioned in the Australian Financial Review‘s report on the Quaedvlieg kerfuffle, which left everyone scratching their heads. They did what? Now, both The Guardian and The Australian are reporting on the incident, which involves two men with dual New Zealand / Australian citizenship.
Basically, they were detained under Section 501 of the Migration Act, which allows for detention or deportation if someone fails a character test – which usually means they’ve committed a crime. A spokesperson for the agency confirmed what went down:
Two individuals were detained after their visas were cancelled mandatorily under section 501. After it was identified that each individual held dual Australian citizenship, arrangements were immediately made for their release from immigration detention.The circumstances surrounding their detention have been reviewed and appropriate safeguards have been implemented.
Now, there’s a bit of confusion between reports. The Guardian says that both men were sent to Christmas Island, whereas The Australian reports that only man was sent there, with the other being detained in an undisclosed location on the mainland.
Either way, that’s at least one person being sent to offshore detention because of a departmental stuff-up. Not the best optics. You know what else isn’t good optics? Mandatory detention on hellish prison islands for anyone, full stop.
Source: The Guardian / The Australian.
Photo: Getty Images.
