Australia’s border security came under fire Tuesday after reports an Egyptian asylum-seeker wanted by Interpol was held in minimum security and a Sri Lankan accused of murder was released into the community.
The cases, outlined in parliament by immigration officials, were condemned as a grave lapse of policy by the conservative opposition, with immigration spokesman Michael Keenan warning of the “potential for more cases like this”.
The Egyptian man who was wanted on a top-level red notice by Interpol spent almost a year in a low-security facility in rural South Australia before being moved to the secure Villawood centre in Sydney.
Immigration department secretary Martin Bowles denied he had been moved in response to media reports that he was a suspected extremist.
“I can assure you we knew what was going on and we knew where the person was,” Bowles told a Senate committee.
“Unfortunately when sensitive information like this is put into the public domain it compromises our ability to do our job properly,” he added.
Bowles also confirmed that a Sri Lankan man accused of murdering his girlfriend before seeking asylum in Australia had been released into the community for seven months on a temporary visa while his case was reviewed.
He was “re-detained” and his visa cancelled in April, Bowles said.
Keenan said the Egyptian man was “either an accused or a convicted terrorist” and had been held behind “what is essentially a (swimming) pool fence”.
“The idea he would have spent almost a year within such a low-security environment, from which he could easily have escaped, is really quite frankly beyond belief and represents a very serious breach of our national security,” he said.
The politically sensitive issues of border security and Australia’s record influx of asylum-seeker boats are likely to loom large in the campaign for September 14’s national elections.
The conservatives — widely tipped to beat Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s unpopular centre-left government — have pledged to crack down on boatpeople with punitive policies including tow-backs of boats to international waters.
Bowles said the “very high” number of asylum-seeker boat arrivals was likely to top 25,000 in the year to June 30, with numbers currently at 22,265.
That figure is almost five times estimates of 5,400 for the period given a year ago and double the revised forecast of 12,160 offered in October.
Australia rapped over 'grave lapse' in border security
