Former-Detainees Deported to New Zealand Allege Mistreatment From Australian Government, Class Action Claims

A group of deportees who were sent to New Zealand after having their Australian visas cancelled plans to file a class action lawsuit against the Australian Government.

A 2014 amendment to Australia’s Migration Act resulted in the cancellations, which made it possible for the Government to cancel the visas of people who had been incarcerated for 12 months or longer, reports Stuff. The policy does not take into account how long ago the sentence was.

The detainees are dubbed the 501s, after the amendment to the character section of the Australian Migration Act.

The 501 deportees held a recent meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, organized by local advocate Filipa Payne, where they decided to file the class action. Tauranga lawyer Craig Tuck is understood to be on board with the class action, reports Stuff.

Payne told the group that there was little awareness in New Zealand of the conditions the deportees faced in detention in Australia.

“That’s the trauma New Zealand is not connecting with,” she said. “It’s the responsibility of New Zealand society to step up and help fix this trauma.”

According to Stuff, at least one member of the group hopes that the class action lawsuit leads to the closure of detention centers in the country.

Australia’s 2014 Migration Act amendment has led to a steady stream of people born in New Zealand being sent back to the country, even if they left as an infant and have no other connections.

Since 2015, 2374 501 deportees have been sent back to New Zealand, with numbers reaching a peak in 2017 at 468 returnees, reports Stuff. During the coronavirus pandemic, at least 320 people were returned.

Community Law Centres Aotearoa Chief Executive Sue Moroney told Stuff that the number of people being deported to New Zealand was surprising, but the alternative for those facing deportation was to stay in a detention center in Australia during the pandemic in “horrific conditions.”

“That’s how inhumane the choices were for people over that time. Come back to a country where they may not have any support in a pandemic, or stay in facilities that have been roundly, internationally criticized for their inhumane treatment,” she said.

There are numerous reports of people being deported to New Zealand and separated from their children and other family, and having nowhere to go. Stuff reports that one 501 deportee at the meeting was homeless in Christchurch after being separated from his family. “It’s a big shock coming back to nothing,” he said.

The policy has attracted a fair amount of criticism in New Zealand, including from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and it is blamed for a souring of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Cases of deportation often result in legal action internationally. Last year, a Ugandan asylum seeker who was removed from the UK and unlawfully deported to Uganda won a victory against the Home Office. The 27-year-old woman known as PN endured a gang rape when she was sent back to Uganda in an unlawful deportation by the Home Office, according to Yahoo. PN won the seven-year struggle to return to the U.K. after her unlawful deportation.

Earlier this year, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department agreed to a $14 million settlement to resolve claims it inappropriately detained and refused to accept bail for people on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hold.

Have you or any of your loved ones ever had a visa cancelled by a foreign government? Let us know in the comments section!

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