‘Easy fix’ to Interpol bungle: make one phone call

The government has been urged to address the potentially fatal flaw in procedures that led to the arrest of Hakeem al-Araibi.

Footballer Hakeem al-Araibi outside a court in Bangkok. Picture: AP

The Morrison government has been urged to address the potentially fatal flaw in Australian ­Interpol procedures that led to the arrest of Melbourne soccer player Hakeem al-Araibi, who has been detained in Bangkok for more than 60 days despite his status as a bona fide refugee.

Former Australian Border Force chief Roman Quaedvlieg said Mr Araibi was detained in Thailand after Interpol issued a red notice in his name, despite Interp­ol’s own procedures making plain that red notices should not be issued against refugees at the request of the countries from which they were fleeing.

Mr Araibi, an anti-corruption and pro-democracy activist, was granted asylum in Australia after saying he feared for his life if returned to Bahrain. Australian authorities, working in Interpol’s National Central Bureau in Canberra, alerted Thailand to the fact Mr Araibi was on his way to Bangkok for his honeymoon. He was arrested on arrival, and now faces possible extradition to Bahrain.

“What you have here is a ­series of information-sharing failures connected to immigration, asylum and Australian Federal Police procedures,” said Mr Quaedvlieg, who was Border Force chief until being dismissed in 2017, following claims he had helped his girlfriend get a job with Customs at Sydney airport.

He said Interpol “wouldn’t necessarily have known that Mr Araibi was a refugee when it ­issued the red notice at the request of Bahrain” and “Australian Federal Police officers acting on Interpol information probably didn’t know either”.

“That’s a flaw in the system,” he said. “Immigration and the AFP information systems are not yet connected, although it’s a work in progress.

“But there is a real simple fix: when the AFP is providing notification that will lead to an arrest, just check within its own department with their Immigration colleagues that the person is not a recognised refugee. It’s really easy, it’s a phone call.”

Mr Araibi, a semi-­professional footballer who until his arrest was a valued member of the Pascoe Vale team in Melbourne, came to Australia after taking part in democracy protests in Bahrain in 2012.

He was granted asylum, having been arrested and, he says, tortured for criticising Bahrain’s ruling family over human rights abuses. Mr Araibi has lived in Melbourne since. He received his visa to travel to Thailand with his new wife on November 8.

Bahrain requested a red not­ice in his name on the same day.

Mr Quaedvlieg said the AFP “was probably doing what it presumed was a routine notification to a fellow Interpol country member, without understanding the full political and diplomatic context.

“It’s highly unlikely it’s a conspiracy. I think it’s a sequence of intent on behalf of Bahrain, acts of mistaken good faith, routine but flawed transactions and Hakeem having left himself exposed. Whichever way it is ultimately cut, the AFP and government have erred.”

Mr Araibi’s wife yesterday appealed to Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha to intervene, describing through a Thai lawyer the “anguish, fear and anxiety felt by both of us” in the first 10 days of his detention when she remained by his side.

Additional reporting: Amanda Hodge