The Squiz

Federal legislation has passed to impose strict new visa conditions on 84 people who were released from indefinite immigration detention after a High Court ruling last week. This issue has been heating up this week because some are criminals convicted of terrible offences, including murder and sex crimes. So “to ensure community safety”, the Albanese Government has agreed with the Coalition to pass laws to enable authorities to restrict and monitor the former detainees’ movements with possible jail time for those conditions.

Back it up a bit…

On Wednesday last week, the High Court ruled that non-Australian citizens can’t be indefinitely detained if they can’t be deported. Sirul Azhar Umar is a good example… He was convicted of murdering a woman in Kuala Lumpur in 2006, but he escaped and came here. Our government couldn’t send him back to Malaysia because he faced the death penalty – a punishment Australia condemns. Sirul is one of the 84 to be released since the decision, and the Solicitor-General says 340 others could join them. That’s generated a lot of political heat this week as the Coalition pushed the government to implement strict conditions, including curfews and rules about their proximity to children. Coalition leader Peter Dutton says it still doesn’t go far enough – he wants the group returned to detention as soon as possible.

What else is happening?

Now that you’ve asked… The UK’s Supreme Court has rejected the Conservative Government’s plan to send unauthorised arrivals to Rwanda. Britain and Rwanda made an agreement in 2022 that would see thousands of people who arrived by boat in the UK sent to Rwanda to request asylum there. You can see why plenty of comparisons to Australia’s offshore processing policies have been made… But the court – which is at the top of the legal tree in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – was highly critical of the plan. UK PM Rishi Sunak isn’t letting that stop him – he’s pushing through emergency legislation to make it happen. It’s another thing on his plate after an interesting week that saw the surprise return of former PM David Cameron as Foreign Secretary…