Australian government to pay $23M to asylum seekers for negligence, unlawful detainment

The Australian federal government will be paying $23 million to asylum seekers for unlawful detention and negligence, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Wednesday. 

A total of 293 unlawful detention claims and 111 negligence claims were filed by asylum seekers to the country’s Finance Department since 2000, according to documents obtained by SMH. The majority of the compensation – $18 million – will be towards unlawful detention claims and $5 million will go to former detainees for negligence.

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Most of the claims that will receive compensation were filed before 2007 during the John Howard administration when it was revealed in 2005 that several cases of people being wrongfully detained.

Australia’s mandatory detention law is a controversial federal policy enacted in 1992 that states all people entering the country without a valid visa are required to detainment. Detainees were incarcerated in one of the Australian immigration detention facilities on the Australian mainland or offshore on small island nations.

A total of 69 claims of negligence and unlawfal detention were filed before the $23 million payout in recent years, leading to more than $1.3 million in government compensation.

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Activist groups have criticized the policy as violating human rights and refugee law. PM Julia Gillard announced in late 2010 that more children and families that are detained will be moved out of the high security and razor-wire detentions and relocated to community-based accommodation.

As of February 2011, the Immigration Department documented 5,061 men, 571 women and 1,027 children living in detention.