The National Justice Project and Amnesty International are welcoming the news that the Federal Court has today ruled in favour of protecting the right of people seeking asylum to retain access to their mobile phones.
The Federal Court found that government officials or their representatives could not mandatorily take property, including lifelines such as mobile phones, from people the government keeps trapped in the Government’s immigration detention centres without a valid legal power.
George Newhouse Principal Solicitor at the National Justice Project who brought and won the case said:
“Today Australia’s legal system acted as it should in stopping the overreach of Minister Peter Dutton and protected the rights of vulnerable people trapped indefinitely in his brutal system of immigration detention.”
“Today Australia’s legal system acted as it should in stopping the overreach of Minister Peter Dutton and protected the rights of vulnerable people trapped indefinitely in his brutal system of immigration detention.”
Tim O’Connor, Campaigns Manager at Amnesty International Australia said:
“Today Australia’s legal system has taken a crucial step in beginning to restore the rights of people who remain in our immigration detention system – by enshrining their rights to mobile phones. This is a lifeline for people to maintain crucial access to their family, friends and their lawyers.”
“Today Australia’s legal system has taken a crucial step in beginning to restore the rights of people who remain in our immigration detention system – by enshrining their rights to mobile phones. This is a lifeline for people to maintain crucial access to their family, friends and their lawyers.”
“We have seen recent Governments consistently and persistently erode the rights of vulnerable refugees and we call on fair and ethically minded members of our parliament to protect the rights of vulnerable people, including those seeking asylum, by refusing to pass newly proposed legislation which would affect this important legal precedent.”
Background
In February 2017, the National Justice Project obtained an urgent court order to stop the Minister for Immigration from implementing a blanket policy of confiscating the mobile phones from everyone in detention.
In February this year lawyers from the National Justice Project (NJP) returned to court for a fourth time to try to stop Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton from implementing his ban on mobile phones in immigration detention.
Today, the court released its final judgment on the case.
