Baxter Immigration Detention Centre detainee sues the Commonwealth and facility operators, with more lawsuits to come

A former detainee at Baxter Immigration Detention Centre is suing the Commonwealth for negligence – and a flood of other lawsuits is expected to follow.

A 2003 photo of the Baxter Immigration Detention Centre entry gate.

Solitary confinement, 24-hour fluorescent lighting and threats from guards were allegedly among the conditions experienced by a former detainee at Baxter Immigration Detention Centre, court documents reveal.

The detainee is suing the Commonwealth Government, as well as four companies which ran the facility near Port Augusta, in what will be the first of several lawsuits over conditions at the controversial detention centre.

The Supreme Court will hear a 12-week trial later this year into whether the Commonwealth was negligent in its handling of the man’s deteriorating mental health.

It is not known precisely how many cases have been brought against the Commonwealth on behalf of people who spent time at Baxter.

However, a directions hearing before the District Court in July 2020 involved 60 different plaintiffs all suing the Commonwealth of Australia.

A cell in the management block at the Baxter Immigration Detention Centre facility near Port Augusta.

Some of those lawsuits involve Australian Correctional Services Pty Ltd, The GEO Group Australia and G4S, all of which were involved in staffing and running Baxter.

Some of the witnesses expected to be called in the Supreme Court case have their own cases against the Commonwealth running in the District Court.

The former detainee is asking the Supreme Court to award him compensation for mental and physical harm as well as aggravated and exemplary damages.

In a defence filed with the Supreme Court, counsel for the Commonwealth admitted that the detainee had spent times in solitary confinement and had been strip-searched, but denied many other allegations.

The now 45-year-old was born in Tehran, Iran, but fled the country after converting to Zoroastrianism, which put him at odds with the hardline Shia Iranian government.

In 2000, shortly before fleeing Iran, the former detainee was arrested, imprisoned and tortured for his religious beliefs.

He arrived at Ashmore Reef by boat on December 22, 2000, following a 29-day voyage in which the 12-year-old captain of the boat got lost, it started to sink and they ran out of food and water six days before they were found.

He was initially taken to Curtin Immigration Detention Centre in Western Australia where he spent 21 months.

Court documents show the man was witness to acts of self-harm and rioting by other detainees in the “tense conditions”.

In 2002, shortly after the $44m facility north of Port Augusta opened, the man was transferred to Baxter.

His legal avenues to stay in Australia were soon exhausted but he was granted a visa in February 2005.

There were wild scenes at a protest at the Baxter Immigration Detention Centre in 2005. Picture: Mark Brake

Protesters kneel in front of Star Group police outside the Baxter Immigration Detention Centre in 2005. Picture: Mark Brake

Protesters at Baxter Immigration Detention Centre approach the police line in 2005. Picture: Mark Brake

During his time at the facility, the former detainee says he was kept in solitary detention in the Management Unit or restrictive detention in Blue Three on 10 occasions, some lasting as long as six days.

The court documents claim the lights in solitary and restrictive detention were always on and guards banged on the bars to keep them awake.

He said guards “made frequent threats or taunts that he would be deported to Iran”.

As his mental health deteriorated and the chances of receiving a visa slipped away, the man tried to dig an escape tunnel and attempted suicide.

At the end of his five years in detention, the man claims he was told on short notice he was being release, given $50 and left at a Port Augusta bus station.

Detainees at the Baxter immigration detention centre facility in Port Augusta during a tour organised by the Department of Immigration in 2004. Picture: Dean Martin.

He claims that despite the traumatic conditions, self-harm attempts and being diagnosed with chronic adjustment disorder, he was never seen by a psychiatrist or treated for his mental illness.

The lawsuit claims that the Commonwealth and the companies did not take steps to protect the man’s mental health.

“If he was not suffering a mental illness when he arrived at Baxter, he suffered a mental illness while he was at Baxter,” the documents claim.

The Commonwealth, in its statement of defence, says that any strip searches were legally conducted and life in the restrictive compounds was part of a “strategic plan”.

The defence document also admits that the government owed a non-delegable duty of care, meaning it could not be assigned to any of the companies employed to help run the facility.

However, they argue that the scope of any damages is restricted by legislation in both South Australia and Western Australia in regards to the man’s time at Curtain Detention Centre.

Under those rules any compensation would be restricted to damages for a “recognised psychiatric illness” rather than mental harm alone.

The matter will appear again before Justice Tim Stanley next week as arguments continue leading up to the trial.