SYDNEY — In a March 23 media release, Kate Gauthier, national coordinator of the A Just Australia refugee policy group, said that disclose a third case of unlawful detention of another Australian citizen by the commonwealth ombudsman’s report in to the Cornelia Rau and Vivian Solon cases, demonstrated that the Rau and Solon cases were only the “tip of the iceberg”.

The report revealed that a Vietnamese-Australian suffering from mental illness, referred to as “Mr T”, had been detained three times by immigration officials. “The three-time detention of this man shows yet again that Australians are in the unfortunate position of needing protection from a government department, as opposed to government department’s being the ones to provide protection to vulnerable Australians”, said Gauthier.

“This case leads us to ask what is the decision-making process by which people are detained? Does this mean Australians with Asian, African or other heritage need to carry their passports to be safe from arbitrary detention?”

Kerry Smith

From Green Left Weekly, March 29, 2006.
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