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Immigration Detention Inquiry - Advocacy StatementJoint Standing Committee on Migration August 2008 Dear Committee Members, On behalf of the signatory organisations below, we would like to thank you for initiating this inquiry into immigration detention. This has been a policy area of great public debate in the past ten years and we hope that this inquiry will lead to significant reform of the current immigration detention regime. We applaud the positive changes that have happened in detention policy in recent years: the release of most children into the community, the use of residence determination for vulnerable people, improvements to service delivery within detention centres including the mental health care of detainees, the new role for the Commonwealth Ombudsman to report on conditions and lengthy detention, the system of individual case-management and the closure of centres on Nauru and Manus Island. However, we feel it is of utmost importance that the committee is made aware of the broad consensus among the advocacy community towards necessary continued reforms of immigration detention. The deprivation of liberty is one of the strongest infringements?of an?individual's rights and must be done so only under the strictest of legal guidelines. We believe that immigration detention should therefore meet the following minimum principals: Immigration detention should be used as a measure of last resort for all people, not just children. It should be used only for legitimate necessary purposes: for health, character, identity and security checks, or where there is a proven ongoing security need. Immigration detention should have clear time limits, with public and legal scrutiny and detained people must have the ability to challenge that detention. Immigration detention should have all the ordinary standards expected by the rule of law, with a framework governed by legal rules, not by discretion. Immigration detention should be conducted with every step taken to ensure that a person in detention can access all necessary legal and welfare services and to ensure that every detainee can properly realise their right to legal advice. We look forward to the report from this inquiry, which we hope will recommend that Australia?s immigration detention regime should be reformed to be in line with these stated principles. Signatories: ACTU ? Australian Council of Trade Unions Amnesty International Australia Australian Catholic Migrant and Refugee Office Australian Lawyers for Human Rights Australian Refugee Association Asylum Seeker Centre of NSW Brotherhood of St. Laurence, Ecumenical Migration Centre Canberra Refugee Action Committee ChilOut ? Children Out of Detention Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA) Foundation House ? Victorian Foundations for Survivors of Torture GetUp! Hotham Mission ? Asylum Seeker Project House of Welcome Human Rights Act for Australia campaign Immigration Lawyers Association of Australasia International Commission of Jurists (Australia) Jesuit Refugee Service Justice Project Law Council of Australia Oxfam International Australia Refugee Council of Australia Researchers for Asylum Rural Australians for Refugees Sabian Mand?an Association Sanctuary Refugee Foundation Tear Australia UnitingJustice Australia, Uniting Church in Australia Vietnamese Community in Australia World Vision Australia
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