Human rights groups – and parliament’s own human rights committee – say a new law pushed through parliament gives the government the power to indefinitely detain refugees, potentially for the rest of their lives. The law allows for the government, where it had cancelled the visa of a refugee but could not send them back to their country of origin because they would face persecution there, to detain them indefinitely. The new law also gives the minister a broad unchallengeable power to withdraw a person’s refugee status recognition – declaring they can be returned to the country they fled. The new law will allow the government to indefinitely detain refugees such as AJL20. David Burke, the legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the legislation exposed the government’s willingness to leave growing numbers of refugees languishing in detention without any plan.

Source: The Guardian May 13, 2021 09:47 UTC