Wrongly Detained For Two Years, Then Cut Adrift
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday November 29, 2007
Connie Levett meets a former Villawood inmate facing on uncertain future.
HONG LI, a Chinese student and Falun Gong follower, served 27 months in the Villawood detention centre, at one point attempting suicide to stave off deportation. Then, unexpectedly and without explanation, this month the Department of Immigration opened the gate and said "go".It was a Thursday, after 5pm, said the 27-year-old, whose name has been changed to protect his identity. "They didn't say anything to me, a DIAC [Department of Immigration and Citizenship] officer came and said, 'You can pack up, you can go.'"'Am I going to another detention centre?' I asked. 'No, you are free today, tonight you go.'"They didn't check my mental health before I left. It's hard to say how I was: for people to get freedom, of course you are happy, but I had no place to go, no money, no accommodation. They gave me $200 and called a taxi. I went to my friend's place." The department gave him no reason for his release, but a GSL security company officer at Villawood showed him departmental paperwork that listed it as owing to a "Vean error". A "Vean error" refers to a precedent set in the 2003 Federal Court case Vean v Minister for Immigration, when the department had failed to correctly notify the applicant of the Refugee Review Tribunal's decision to refuse the application.A refugee advocate said she now had question marks about others in detention. "The first thing I used to ask people was about the persecution," said Frances Milne, from the Balmain for Refugees group. "It didn't dawn on me until now - should they be in detention at all, or is this a departmental error?"The real question becomes how many more are there we haven't met who are in detention, quietly suffering, for years?" The department is on the defensive about wrongful detention, after details emerged this month of its treatment of the Vietnamese refugee Tony Tran, who was wrongly detained for 51/2 years and separated from his young son. Thirteen people have been released from detention in recent weeks, after the outgoing minister, Kevin Andrews, called a review of all 450 detainees to establish if others were wrongly held. Mr Andrews has defended his departmental staff, telling The Australian the situation was "a legal process gone mad". In Hong Li's case, the tribunal decision, and Vean error, was made in 2003. He was not detained until 2005. Separate to the departmental error, which led to his detention, he has won the right in the Federal Magistrates Court to have his case for a protection visa reheard by the Refugee Review Tribunal because of a tribunal jurisdictional error. "They say they've made an error, done some wrong thing, it took 27 months to find out the mistake," he said. "Why can't they find out the mistake at the beginning of my detention? It's difficult being out, I don't have finance to support me: I am asking for very basic things, for a place to live, clothes." The department has granted him a bridging visa without the right to work, but offered no means of support. For three weeks he lived in a shelter, with help from the Red Cross ($140 a month) and Bridge for Asylum Seekers Foundation ($180 a fortnight). He is now staying with a friend. He hopes the change of government may bring a change of fortune. "I hope the case is finished quickly, so I can get a positive result from the government. I have no date for Refugee Review Tribunal and I am not allowed to work." In 1999, life looked much more promising. Hong Li arrived in Australia on a student visa with 20 hours-a-week work rights. He came to study English - " my English was very basic, A-B-C" - and then, with financial support from his family in China, he enrolled in an information technology course with fees of about $12,000 a year. "In 1999, just after I arrived, the Chinese Government started to persecute Falun Gong supporters. My mum was Falun Gong and she lost her government job, so I lost my family's support. I gave up study in late 2000-early 2001." He then worked as a labourer and in 2002 applied for a protection visa, he says, because he was told about persecution his parents were facing. This year, during his wrongful detention, he tried to kill himself after being told he faced imminent deportation. It was not only through fear of the Chinese Government that he asked that his name be changed. He is also frightened of retribution from the Australian authorities. "I am seeking a protection visa at the moment. If I upset them, they can make lots of points. The Government has lots of money, power and time to play a game. Not one or two lawyers, a whole team of lawyers. For me, I am too small."
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald
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