Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee
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The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee Incident at the Manus Island Detention Centre from 16 February to 18 February 2014 December 2014 Commonwealth of Australia 2014 ISBN 978-1-76010-103-9 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License. The details of this licence are available on the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/. This document was produced by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee secretariat and printed by the Senate Printing Unit, Department of the Senate, Parliament House, Canberra. ii Members of the committee Members Senator Penny Wright (AG, SA) (Chair) Senator the Hon Ian Macdonald (LP, QLD) (Deputy Chair from 10.07.2014) Senator Catryna Bilyk (ALP, TAS) (from 01.07.2014) Senator Jacinta Collins (ALP, VIC) (from 01.07.2014) Senator the Hon Joe Ludwig (ALP, QLD) Senator Linda Reynolds (LP, WA) (from 01.07.2014) Former members Senator Zed Seselja (LP, ACT) (Deputy Chair until 30.06.2014) Senator Gavin Marshall (ALP, VIC) (until 30.06.2014) Senator the Hon Lisa Singh (ALP, TAS) (until 30.06.2014) Participating members Senator Sarah Hanson-Young (AG, SA) Secretariat Ms Sophie Dunstone, Committee Secretary Mr Matthew Corrigan, Principal Research Officer Ms Zoe Hutchinson, Principal Research Officer Mr CJ Sautelle, Acting Principal Research Officer Mr Jarrod Jolly, Senior Research Officer Mr Josh Wrest, Research Officer Ms Jo-Anne Holmes, Administrative Officer Suite S1.61 Telephone: (02) 6277 3560 Parliament House Fax: (02) 6277 5794 CANBERRA ACT 2600 Email: [email protected] iii iv Table of Contents Members of the committee ............................................................................... iii List of abbreviations .......................................................................................... ix Recommendations .............................................................................................. xi Chapter 1 Introduction and background ................................................................................. 1 Referral of the inquiry ............................................................................................ 1 Conduct of the inquiry ............................................................................................ 2 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ 2 A note on terminology ............................................................................................ 3 Report structure ...................................................................................................... 3 Background ............................................................................................................. 3 Other relevant inquiries and investigations .......................................................... 16 Chapter 2 Administrative arrangements at the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre .................................................................................................................................. 19 Role of PNG authorities in relation to the centre ................................................. 19 Contractual arrangements between the department and service providers .......... 21 Role of Australian departmental officials at the centre ........................................ 26 Employment of local workers by contracted service providers ........................... 27 Adequacy of staff training for service provider employees ................................. 30 Chapter 3 Conditions and service provision at the Manus Island RPC .............................. 37 Size and composition of the population of asylum seekers.................................. 37 v Physical facilities and environment at the RPC ................................................... 40 Concerns relating to the adequacy of healthcare services .................................... 44 Security infrastructure at the centre and related issues ........................................ 48 Tension between PNG locals and asylum seekers ............................................... 51 Chapter 4 Refugee status determination processing and resettlement arrangements ...... 55 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 55 Refugee status determination processes in Australia ........................................... 55 Current agreement between Australia and Papua New Guinea ........................... 56 Refugee status determination processes in PNG .................................................. 58 Encouragement of asylum seekers to return their country of origin .................... 72 Resettlement arrangements for refugees .............................................................. 74 Chapter 5 Sequence of events leading up to and during the incident of 16 February to 18 February 2014 ......................................................................................................... 77 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 77 Overview of events leading up to and during the incident from 16 to 18 February 2014 ...................................................................................................................... 77 Events leading up to 16 February 2014 ................................................................ 82 Meeting on the afternoon of 16 February 2014 .................................................... 88 Protests and breakout of asylum seekers on 16 February 2014 ........................... 90 Events of 17 and 18 February 2014 ...................................................................... 92 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 101 Chapter 6 Response to the incident and subsequent developments ................................... 103 Response of service providers and immediately after the incident .................... 103 vi PNG criminal investigation ................................................................................ 104 Response of the department and the minister following the incident ................ 107 Transition to Transfield Services and subsequent developments ....................... 114 Other developments in operations at the Manus Island RPC ............................. 122 Chapter 7 Australia's human rights obligations and duty of care responsibilities .......... 127 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 127 Australia's international human rights obligations ............................................. 127 Scope of Australia's human rights obligations in relation to individuals detained at Manus Island ................................................................................................... 132 Human rights assessment of the incident at the MIDC between 16 February and 18 February 2014 ................................................................................................ 138 Duty of care responsibilities under domestic law .............................................. 143 Chapter 8 Conclusions and Recommendations ................................................................... 145 Contributing factors leading to the violence of 16-18 February 2014 ............... 146 The events of 16 to 18 February 2014 ................................................................ 146 Responses to the incidents by Australian and PNG authorities ......................... 149 Responsibility of the Australian Government in relation to the centre .............. 151 Ongoing issues in relation to the Manus Island RPC ......................................... 153 Dissenting report from Government Members of the Committee ............. 157 Additional Comments from the Australian Greens .................................... 171 Appendix 1 - Public submissions ................................................................... 177 Appendix 2 - Public hearings and witnesses ................................................. 179 Appendix 3 - Tabled documents, answers to questions on notice and additional information .................................................................................... 185 vii viii List of abbreviations AEDT Australian Eastern Daylight Time ALA Australian Lawyers' Alliance CAPS Claims Assistance Provider Scheme CCTV Closed Circuit Television CAT Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child DIBP Department of Immigration and Border Protection DIAC Department of Immigration and Citizenship ECO Emergency Control Organisation HRP Humanitarian Research Partners HRLC Human Rights Law Centre ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ICSA Papua New Guinea's Immigration and Citizenship Service Authority IHMS International Health and Medical Service IMA Irregular Maritime Arrival IOM International Organization for Migration IRT Incident Response Team JATF Joint Agency Task Force MOU Memorandum of Understanding OSB Operation Sovereign Borders PNG Papua New Guinea PNG CMO Papua New Guinea's Chief Migration Officer ix OPC Offshore Processing Centre* RPC Regional