Nine NZYQ detainees roam free against board’s advice

At least nine fewer detainees were required to wear ankle bracelets or subjected to a curfew last month, than was advised by a board of law enforcement officials tasked with monitoring dangerous freed non-citizens.

The High Court of Australia in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

At least nine fewer detainees were required to wear ankle bracelets or subjected to a curfew last month, than was advised by a board of law enforcement officials tasked with monitoring dangerous non-citizen freed after a landmark High Court decision.

The Australian can reveal the Community Protection Board recommended that 59 out of 152 non-citizen detainees being monitored should be subject to the visa conditions, but as of early last month 68 of the NZYQ cohort were unhampered by the requirements.

The board also recommended that 23 of the detainees should wear ankle bracelets but have no curfew imposed, but only 16 had these conditions in place, suggesting that seven fewer dangerous non-citizens were under electronic monitoring.

The figures were revealed in a separate High Court challenge filed by an Eritrean-born man known as YBFZ against monitoring conditions the Albanese government imposed on him after his release in November.

The revelation comes amid mounting concern about how the NZYQ cohort is being managed, after a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday uncovered at least two murderers and 26 sex offenders were not wearing electronic ankle monitors.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles denied the detainees were not being sufficiently monitored despite not being required to wear ankle bracelets, as he came under further political pressure concerning Direction 99, which allowed dozens of criminal non-citizens to remain in the country.

He said the NZYQ cohort were subject to spot checks, random house checks and drone surveillance.

“What’s been done through our strong laws, which impose strict visa conditions on everyone in the cohort, including daily monitoring, as well as the other discretionary conditions,” he told Sky News.

“There is a quarter of a billion dollars that we’ve invested in supporting our law enforcement agencies to enforce that.

“That’s enabled things like using drones to keep track of these people.”

He said it was against the law to require all former detainees to be monitored without consideration of “each person’s circumstances”.

The court documents also show the board recommended 10 former detainees abide by a curfew but have no ankle monitoring, with six NZYQ non-citizens being subject to the conditions at the time they were filed.

A spokeswoman for Mr Giles said the figures were “out of date” and from early April, adding that individuals in custody did not require monitoring. The board’s April report said 76 detainees were subject to electronic monitoring.

YBFZ’s lawyers have argued that the visa conditions did not have a “non-punitive or legitimate purpose” in the High Court challenge, which could see another aspect of Labor’s border laws be found to be unconstitutional.

The federal government has mounted its defence of the case, filing a 900-page document outlining the nature of the ankle monitoring and curfew conditions imposed on the detainees.

It has also applied for details surrounding the ankle bracelet technology to be suppressed.

In other cases uncovered by The Australian, the government quietly lifted the visa conditions on at least three former detainees who mounted legal challenges against the requirements.

This includes one case where a Cuban man, XTVC, was convicted of raping a teenager.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson accused Mr Giles and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil of hiding behind public servants, after Labor sought to blame decisions regarding the detainees’ visa conditions on the Community Protection Board. “What is the point of the … board if the Albanese government is not even going to follow their advice?” he said.

“The ministers for Home Affairs and Immigration should immediately explain why they are allowing more people un-monitored in the community than the board recommended.

“They can’t hide behind public servants any more.”

Kuwaiti-born Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan, who was released following the High Court decision, was charged with bashing a Perth grandmother in an alleged home invasion last month shortly after his ankle bracelet was removed.