A fourth former immigration detainee has been charged after being released following a High Court ruling.
A 45-year-old Sudanese-born man was arrested for allegedly breaking a curfew and stealing luggage at an airport, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said on Wednesday afternoon.
“It is alleged the man breached the conditions of his Commonwealth visa on 1 December 2023 by failing to comply with his residential curfew,” the AFP said in a statement.
“It is also alleged the man went to Melbourne airport where he stole luggage from a traveller who was sleeping in the terminal.”
The man was charged with one count of theft, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and one count of breaching a curfew, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $93,900 fine.
The man was released following last month’s decision by the New Zealand Supreme Court, which ruled that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful if the non-citizen cannot be deported. The decision led to the release of 148 people.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil refused to answer whether any further arrests had been made since the detainees were released.
“These are obviously operational questions and I would imagine that ABF [Australian Border Force] or Operation Aegis would be able to provide you with that information,” Giles said.
“What we are working on … is to make sure that we leave no stone unturned in dealing with this cohort.”
The Opposition Leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, said it would have been “far preferable” for the Federal Government to have been upfront about further arrests.
Speaking on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing on Wednesday, Mr Birmingham said it would have been “far better for them to be prepared to actually respond to the High Court case, which they weren’t prepared for in the first place”.
“It would be better for them to be able to have a consistent response throughout the whole process,” he said.
Three other former detainees were arrested in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria last week for alleged offences.
Victoria Police confirmed a 33-year-old man, who was a registered sex offender, was arrested in Dandenong on Tuesday after allegedly failing to comply with his reporting requirements. The man appeared in Dandenong Magistrates Court on Tuesday afternoon.
The arrest sparked a political firestorm in Senate question time, with Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash saying the “ringleader of a child exploitation gang” had allegedly breached conditions.
The Labor leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, said the government had no choice but to release people because it could not “instruct public servants to act unlawfully”.
Wong criticised the Coalition for voting with the Greens against a second bill to place stricter conditions on the visas of those released under the NZYQ decision, and for not confirming whether it would vote for Labor’s preventive detention regime. The bill will be debated in the House of Representatives on Wednesday evening.
