Human Rights Overboard: seeking asylum in Australia by Goddard Chris Briskman Linda Burnside Julian Latham Susie

Author:Goddard, Chris, Briskman, Linda, Burnside, Julian, Latham, Susie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: POL000000, POL035010, POL055000, SOC007000
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Published: 2008-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

HE FELT HIS HEART WOULD BURST THROUGH HIS MOUTH:

DEATHS IN DETENTION

Another theme that emerged from the evidence presented to the inquiry was that inadequate care in detention in some cases led to death. The inquiry has documented a total of 19 deaths in Australian immigration detention, 12 of them between January 2001 and June 2003. The inquiry has included deaths that occurred during Operation Relex and Department of Immigration compliance raids. The inquiry has also included the death of a detainee held in Nauru on behalf of the Australian government.

Between the introduction of mandatory detention (in 1992) and 1999 only one death occurred in detention. On 10 May 1998, an American who had been in Australia for one day died of liver disease in Villawood. Between 2000 and 2008, 18 people died under the care of the Immigration Department, a 1700 per cent increase.

Viliami Tanginoa

An ACM policy document presented to the inquiry shows that detention operators recognise the risk of deaths in detention centres.451

However, Viliami Tanginoa, a Tongan who had lived in Australia for 17 years after overstaying his visa, deliberately dived to his death at Maribyrnong detention centre on the day he was due to be deported, 22 December 2000. Before his death he had spent eight hours perched on top of a basketball hoop in the rain. The inquiry obtained a copy of Victorian State Coroner Phillip Byrne’s Record of Investigation into that death. It states:

I remain puzzled why virtually no-one appreciated Mr Tanginoa was at imminent risk of some form of self-harm … It may be due to a fundamental misjudgement of this gentle, quiet, apparently uncomplicated man … Mr Tanginoa’s response to an endeavour to place further mattresses is graphically depicted on the audio-visual tape in evidence. He stood up and became quite agitated. Quite frankly, it should have been patently obvious and management should have been alerted that great risk of self-harm was by this time, very probable. It should be noted that this was almost two hours before Mr Tanginoa plunged to his death … 452

I do not see any strategic, informed, cohesive, active structured management plan … In fact what I see is a haphazard, unmethodical, wholly inadequate approach … If one action epitomises the ineptitude of the approach adopted by ACM, it is the action of … bouncing a basketball in the courtyard in the vicinity of Mr Tanginoa … If expert negotiators had been involved, I am satisfied the tragic event would have been prevented. Whilst the immediate cause of Mr Tanginoa’s death was his own action … Another cause was the inaction of centre management.453

Hai Phuoc Vo

The following month, on 24 January 2001, 36-year-old Hai Phuoc Vo died at Western General Hospital after suffering an asthma attack in Port Phillip Prison, where he had been held as an immigration detainee. The Victorian coroner found that he died from pneumonia, which followed from a chest infection related to persistent sinus. The Department of Immigration failed to answer questions from the inquiry

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