Committee slams immigration's vetting process

Details

Created on Friday, 05 October 2012 17:02

Written by Editorial staff

The Senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee has come down hard against the federal government and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship after its report found that those in charge of border protection are using X-rays to scan a person's arm to determine their age.

Indonesian teenagers, some as young as 14, are accused of being people smugglers who facilitate the arrival of boat people without immigration visas and some around that age have been housed in maximum security adult prisons since 2008.

The report by the committee has recommended that Australia needs to establish proper diplomatic channels with Indonesia to better assess a person's age without the need to resort to X-rays.

The committee also recommended that minors be allowed some level of access to their families, have access to consular assistance and that Indonesian officials should be notified regarding the fact that Australia has a minor of theirs in custody.

Human rights groups and medical specialists have been up in arms about the use of X-rays, citing their inability to provide an accurate age. Since July 2011 the government has been using dental X-rays and other sources to help determine a person's age.

In a July 27 statement from the office of attorney general, Nicola Roxon, it said that the government has ceased to X-ray the wrists of suspected minors to attempt to gauge their age.

By the end of August this year, there were 33 people in prison or detention who were of Indonesian origin who were claiming to be minors.

One of the committee members, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, said that the incompetence of the immigration minister and his department is opening up Australia to liability claims and payouts.

An average of 70 asylum seekers have arrived every day since the prime minister and the immigration minister changed the laws regarding border policy and reintroduced offshore processing on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

It comes as a mayor of a regional centre in Victoria is calling for asylum seekers to be sent to rural areas of the country to fill labour shortages.

Swan Hill mayor John Katis believes that since the Department of Immigration has caused a massive bureaucratic nightmare, delaying the processing of boat people, they may as well contribute to Australia.

"I can say in a couple of words: bloody ridiculous. Somewhere along the line the ministers have lost their plot when it comes to immigration," he told the ABC.