How harsh is harsh? And how cruel is cruel?

Should immigration detention centres be operated on the model of prisons?

And are people who are being held in immigration detention facilities being treated with unnecessary severity?

Would Australians accept the practices that are being carried out in detention centres “out of sight”, and therefore “out of mind”, if those practices were exposed to the daylight of public scrutiny?

Well, consider the following case, SZRWS v Minister for Immigration & Ors (2017) FCCA 3101 (22 December 2017).

These proceedings in the Federal Circuit Court involved a challenge to a direction that was issued by the Australian Border Force that sought to restrict the types of foods that can be brought to persons being held in immigration detention by their visitors.

This direction (Australian Border Force Directive 016 -2017) was issued on 11 August 2017, and came into effect on 11 September 2017.

This directive sought to prohibit food from being brought to detainees during family visits unless it was:

  • Commercially packaged so it could not be tampered with, labeled, factory sealed and provided with a valid “expiry date”;
  • The packaging consisted only of a carton or soft plastic, and was not made of glass or metal;
  • The amount of food was limited to a quantity that could be consumed during the visit; and
  • The food was consumed only in the visiting area and not taken back to a detainee area.

The directive further prohibited the following kinds of foods from being brought to detainees during visits:

  • Perishable foods;
  • Frozen meals;
  • Fresh fruits and vegetables;
  • Tinned foods; and
  • Home cooked meals.

This directive was challenged in court by a detainee who is being held at the Villawood Detention Centre near Sydney.

He claimed that he had been held in detention, and thus separated from his family, for 5 years (!); that prior to the introduction of this direction, he had been able to spend the whole day with his family, but the direction had made it impossible for the family to eat culturally appropriate foods, and thus limited the time they could spend with him as there was nothing culturally appropriate for them to eat;  and that the sharing of a meal was important to help his family connect and enjoy some time together resembling real family time despite the circumstances of their being separated. 

The applicant in SZRWS was successful in obtaining an “interlocutory” (temporary) injunction to restrain the implementation of this direction against the person in detention.

And just recently, late last week, the Full Court of the Federal Court dismissed an appeal by the Minister for Home Affairs against this injunction – see Minister for Home Affairs v SZRWS (2018) FCAFC 51.

How far will the government go?  We have seen, in another case, that the government has introduced a policy enabling the confiscation of mobile phones and SIM cards from detainees. A challenge to that policy relating to mobile phones was rejected by Judge Smith of the Federal Circuit Court in the case of SZSZM v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2017) FCCA 815i¸while a parallel challenge to this policy relating to the confiscation of mobile phones (in the case of ARJ17 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection has apparently not yet been resolved).

What do you think of this?

Is it really necessary for the government to prohibit the families of detainees from bringing them home-cooked food to be eaten during visits?  The government defended its position here by claiming that the direction was necessary to protect the health of detainees, because: 1) cooked and raw food can become quickly contaminated with bacteria and can cause illness if left at room temperature; and 2) if food is not commercially packaged and sealed, there is a risk of “controlled and prohibited items entering the detention centre”.

Should an immigration detention centre be run just like a prison? Or not?

At least in respect of foods brought during visitation periods, the Federal Courts have answered this question, at least for the moment, that they should not be.

Your thoughts on this?