An investigation can be carried out as a result of a complaint or on the initiative (or own initiative) of. Copies or summaries of the reports are usually made available on the Ombudsman's website at www.ombudsman.gov.au. We interviewed current and former DIMA officers, former Australasian Corrections Management (ACM) staff and members of the East Timorese community.
1 In January 2006, the department's name was changed to the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA). He was also well known to the East Timorese community in Perth, including the Honorary Chancellor. Some members of the East Timorese community invited Mr G to their houses, but after a few hours he would invariably return to the same park in Fremantle.
He believed, as expressed in an email to the compliance helpdesk, that Mr G did not meet all relevant criteria. Despite the record-keeping requirements in the relevant MSI, there is no record of the initial adverse assessment against the visa criteria for absorbed persons.
Complaint to the Commonwealth Ombudsman
P ART 2—A REAS OF CONCERN
Section 189 and the decision to detain Mr G
Reasonable suspicion, properly framed, constitutes the only protection in section 189 against arbitrary detention; it is imperative that DIMA staff consider and adhere to the exact wording of the section. While it is certainly reasonable to rely on information from members of the police for the purposes of an investigation, the serious consequences that follow from a decision to detain require that the relevant DIMA officer speak to the individual in person. Any officer exercising the s 189 detaining power must find out the person's identity and their immigration status.
A senior immigration official admitted that during Mr G's detention there was a greater reliance on the detainee to prove his legal status, rather than DIMA re-examining the merits of the suspicion. I note that DIMA now recognizes the need for a reasonableness of suspicion review in MSI 411: Determining Immigration Status in the Field and in Custody (in which officers are instructed to release a person from custody if there is no longer reasonable suspicion). that the person is an illegal non-citizen). DIMA should issue instructions to provide guidance to police and DIMA officials on the exercise of police powers conferred by section 189 of the Migration Act.
Missed opportunities to end the detention
It is also necessary in making this judgment to avoid narrow mono-cultural assumptions about what constitutes membership of the Australian community. 6. Many of the witnesses had made representations to DIMA at the time of the detention of Mr. G and were involved in the welfare of Mr. G after his release from custody. Indeed, as detailed below, it appears that DIMA's refusal to obtain information from members of the East Timorese community contributed to an initial flawed assessment and delayed the release of Mr. G from custody.
Additional anecdotal information from members of the East Timorese community, as well as Centrelink records, show that Mr G was initially employed in a Fremantle tannery and factory. Immediately before 1 September 1994, the person was not covered by Section 20 of the Act as then applicable. This information was only accessed by DIMA after several attempts at communication by members of the East Timorese community.
In view of the complexity inherent in this visa, the MSI suggests that each regional office a. Officer F informed my staff that he did not notice the part of the MSI that instructed him to record the adverse finding. If it is clear that the person was concerned about compliance departments, a copy of the departmental finding should be copied to them for their information.
In this case, compliance with the criteria for an absorbed person visa was recorded at ICSE, but for reasons explained under the heading 'computer records' below, Mr G's status in that system remained illegal. During the interview, many of the officers involved were surprised to learn that a delegation from the East Timorese community had already been on September 3, 2002. The DIMA officer at PEIDC who discussed Mr. G with representatives of the East Timorese community on September 3, 2002 did not record that did this contact take place, nor the details of the conversation.
During the interview, Officer D recalled conversations with Mr. G's visitors at PEIDC, but this contact was not recorded in any DIMA system and the information provided was not made known to the officer in relation to the admitted person's visa. During the second interview on 6 September 2002, Officers B and G learned that Mr E, Chancellor of the Honorary Portuguese Consulate, was one of the first to learn of Mr G's detention and also visited him at PEIDC on 3 September. 2002. If these men had been contacted, DIMA would have had information that triggered a visa re-evaluation for the absorbed person on October 8, 2002, some 13 days earlier.
Other detention related matters
The MSI recommended that officers take simultaneous notes of the detainee's response to questions and that the detainee, and any interpreter used in the interrogation, confirm in writing that the record of the interrogation accurately reflected the detainee's responses. It does not appear from the file that the compliance officers took any action with regard to the name Pedro Mundo G. There was little point in interviewing Mr G at this stage and the manner in which the interview was conducted shows incompetence on the part of the DIMA officers to recognize and respond to acute mental illness.
There is no indication that Mr G consented to the recording of this interview, but more importantly it appears that Mr G's mental health condition could have deprived him of the capacity to do so. The transcript of the interview reveals many instances where Officer G directed his questions to the interpreter rather than to Mr. G himself. The questions were not asked in an appropriate manner and the officer failed to take control of the interview.
This information, which directly contradicts the text of the MSI, is not printed when the text of the MSI is printed. Some of the officers who read this email expressed the view that Mr B was interfering with DIMA's activities rather than helping DIMA. His email was both reasonable from a common sense perspective and mandatory under the terms of the contract.
Inadequate information about a person in detention should be reported to the attention of the detention service provider. Only Officer C's notebook contains notes on Mr. G - a record of the interview on August 29, 2002 and another record of contact from Officer D on September 3, 2002. It is imperative that the inaccuracies within ICSE be rectified as a matter of priority and Until the system can be relied upon, agents should interrogate all aspects of the system and compare information from other sources.
Information provided by members of the Australian East Timorese community further suggests that the East Timorese refugees were offered a choice between Australia and Portugal upon their arrival in Darwin.
P ART 3—O THER ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED
Western Australia Police
P ART 4—R EMEDIAL ACTION
P ART 5—C ONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Section 5(1) of the Migration Act 1958 defines officer, for the purposes of the Act, to include 'a member of the Australian Federal Police or of the police force of a State or an internal Territory'. In recognition of the need to identify individuals quickly and accurately, all specialist identity management resources, including NIVA, were consolidated into the Identity Branch on 1 July 2006. More detailed information on the provisions of the Privacy Act 1988 will be provided to all officers through the national Privacy Training Strategy, which will come into effect in October 2006.
Private tuition is also part of the curriculum for compliance officers attending the College of Immigration. As part of the work carried out by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner under the MoU, they will comment on the department's training material. These comments will help the Department ensure the accuracy of the materials with respect to privacy issues and assist the Department in ensuring that the educational materials meet both our obligations and operational requirements.
It was agreed that additional training and increased awareness of mental health issues would help to recognize the implications of interviewing or detaining a person with a mental illness. In relation to curriculum development, DIMA's National Training Branch has established a Panel of Learning and Development Service Providers, including those with experience and skills in training development in. Existing administrative guidance on detention procedures and further guidance being drafted require officers to make detailed records of the interview, have them approved as accurate by the interviewee, and provide the interviewee with a copy of the interview transcript .
A significant part of the training and education offered by DIMA's College of Immigration will also focus on skills in preparing and conducting interviews, and. As indicated in the Department's response to recommendation 7 of the report on Mr T, the Immigration College will also include practical instruction on the difference between interpreters and translators and on the importance of using accredited persons. The establishment of the Detention Health Department within the Detention Services Division has also led to an improved operational liaison process between the health and psychological service provider and DIMA.
The case management portal will be operational in April 2007 and the detention portal in mid-2007 before the new detention contract commences. As a result of the consolidated view of a client's records that will be available through these computer portals, officers will have immediate access to information recorded by the detention service provider and any deficiencies will be more readily apparent to officers in both the department and the detention. service provider. The ongoing channels of communication established through this process enable members of the community who may consider themselves affected to contact the department to clarify their situation.
A CRONYMS
