Natasha Robinson, writing in The Australian yesterday, highlighted the issue of hundreds of immigration detainees who have been "held without trial in the nation's toughest prisons to live alongside hardened criminals, some for years at a time.
The Immigration Department was unable to provide an estimate yesterday of how many cases have passed through the nation's maximum security prisons, but confirmed there were 14 detainees in state-run jails.
The Australian understands the practice has been routine for at least five years. The revelations come as John Howard agreed to consider plans raised by rebel backbenchers to deliver the "speedier" release of long-term detainees and children in Australia's immigration
detention centres.
Despite ruling out an end to mandatory detention, the Prime Minister is considering the release of all women and children while freeing long-term detainees after one year.
But as the political spotlight focuses on those detainees, others have been left languishing in jails. Three detainees are now in prison in Queensland -- the same state in which it was revealed Cornelia Rau spent three months in the Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre. Two are in Brisbane, and one is in a north Queensland jail.”
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