ASIO says no to immigration visa for new mother

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Created on Thursday, 17 January 2013 17:16

Written by Editorial staff

A baby boy born in Sydney's Villawood detention centre will remain inside the complex with his mother.

This is despite the fact she successfully claimed she is a genuine asylum seeker.

The child, whose heritage is Tamil, is part of a group of 50 asylum seekers who have not been given any sort of immigration visa and will remain in detention as a result of failure to meet Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) clearance criteria.

Their imprisonment hasn't been fully explained despite a High Court challenge which has proved their genuine need for asylum.

The newborn's mother, Ranjini has, opted to keep him with her inside the facility despite his right to freedom.

Ranjini's lawyer, David Manne, who is also the executive director of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, told the ABC that the government's policies aren't working.

He said so far the federal government has taken the position that these people should remain in detention because of the assessments made by ASIO, which outline that they pose a security risk of some description.

ASIO responded to the criticism in a statement saying that it is well within its rights to not provide clearance if it feels there is a reason to.

The statement read: "Security assessments are not character checks - they are an assessment of the risk an individual may pose to security, and may refer to terrorism, the promotion of communal violence and acts of espionage or sabotage.

Mr Manne added that because of the finality of ASIO's assessment, it is outside the reaches of the law, thus nullifying the court ruling.

He outlined that because the assessments aren't explained to the subject, other than the outcome, they are not provided with any information to challenge the assessment.

As a result, those genuine refugees who weren't given the result they were looking for aren't able to obtain a protection immigration visa.

Mr Manne commented: "It's a matter of basic decency, basic humanity and common sense that the Government should exercise the discretion that it has to release her into the community with her husband, with the father of the newborn baby."

ASIO added that the reason why it does not go into details behind the outcome of the assessment is that it would reveal its methodologies, its sources and its capabilities - all of which would cause greater national security risks, it said.