A bill that could see mobile phones confiscated from Australian immigration detainees will be considered by parliament this week, with advocates warning the law .
The proposed changes to the Migration Act would allow Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge to declare certain items, including mobile phones and sim cards, prohibited and grant Australian Border Force officials additional powers to search detainees.
Ahead of the bill's return to the House of Representatives, asylum seeker advocates, including former Socceroo Craig Foster, launched a renewed campaign against the proposed changes.
As of midday on Monday, more than 30,000 people had signed a petition organised by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) calling for the bill to be scrapped.
"Mobile phones are absolutely a lifeline for people held in detention," ASRC caseworker Nina Field told SBS News on Monday.
"It allows people to send communications for lawyers, doctors, caseworkers - like myself - but also, vitally, it is connecting them with their family, friends and supporters in the community."
Many detainees also had children in the community, she said.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, visitors have been banned from Australian immigration detention centres since March, meaning mobile phones are often the only way detainees can connect with their loved ones.
The Department of Home Affairs has previously insisted the laws would not be and only in circumstances where wrongdoing is expected.
It argued that existing arrangements to remove contraband are inadequate because they require state and territory police to be on hand while searches or seizures are conducted.
Mr Tudge has previously said the amendment is necessary due to the "large proportion" of people in immigration detention who are facing deportation due to criminal convictions.
“Currently a detainee could have a bag of cocaine, instructions on how to build a bomb, or child exploitation images in their room, and the ABF would be powerless to seize it – clearly this is unacceptable," he said in May, when the legislation was first introduced.
But Ms Field said sufficient powers already exist under the current arrangements and the law is a move to "keep people living in detention out of sight and out of mind".
Mobile phones have also been crucial in recording incidents and conditions within the facilities and communicating them to the wider public, she said.
"This move to remove mobile phones is about silencing people."
A raft of human rights groups, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), have previously written regarding the bill to the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee that examined the proposal.
The federal court ruled in 2018 that an ABF ban on phones was unlawful as it was not covered by the Migration Act.
With Tom Stayner
