The 149 illegal immigrant prisoners released after an Australian High Court decision last year included seven murderers, 37 sex offenders, 72 violent criminals, and fewer than five with “low level or no criminality”.
The remainder include 16 domestic violence offenders, 13 drug traffickers, and fewer than five convicted of people smuggling or “crimes of serious international concern”.
The numbers were revealed in documents tabled in the Senate on Monday at the request of Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson, and also show that none of the released detainees have been put back in immigration detention, even though 24 have been arrested and charged with a variety of offences.
“As of 31 January 2024, nil individuals have been re-detained in an immigration detention facility on the basis that there is a real prospect of their removal from Australia being practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future,” the report stated.
The detainees, who were all released after a November High Court ruling on the case of convicted Rohingya paedophile NYZQ, are now spread across Australia with 60 in NSW, 40 in Victoria, 20 in Queensland and Western Australian, and fewer than 10 in South Australia and the ACT. None are in Tasmania.
The court ruled that indefinite detention is unlawful, and as a result the Labor government freed NYZQ, who raped a 10-year-old, and 148 other detainees who authorities claimed could not be deported.
The resulting outrage led to preventative detention laws being passed through parliament allowing any illegal immigrant criminals released from indefinite detention to be held for three years if it is decided they might be a danger to the community.
“It’s now nearly two months since the parliament passed a preventative detention scheme under pressure from the opposition and the government has not used it,” Senator Patterson told Sky News.
“They have not applied for one of these violent offenders to be taken off the streets, and those violent offenders have reoffended, they’ve reoffended against Australians, they’ve been charged with it at least 18 times, and a further six have breached the conditions of their visas.”
Senator Patterson also asked Home Affairs secretary Stephanie Foster why the documents were released to embattled Immigration Minister Andrew Giles but not the Opposition.
