Persecuted people seeking asylum in Australia are among the most unsafe members of society. Those confined in immigration custody should be handled with dignity and compassion, rather than experiencing questionable and also criminal tactics by the authorities.

The Government isresponsible for the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, and it is important that they seek legal advice and help where needed.The lawyers who work for them represent many asylum seekers who have been appallingly mistreated and denied their human rights. The actions involve

  • Illegal detention of people seeking asylum class action
  • Removing babies from Compulsory detention
  • Safeguarding women in Australia’s offshore detention centres
  • Safeguarding women from neglect and abuse on Nauru.
  • Safeguarding children from trauma in detention centres

Australian refugee law is highly complex and frequently evolving. Therefore it’s important that you obtain informed legal advice to ensure your application has the maximum chance of success.

Unlawful detention of people seeking asylum class action

This pro-bono case is significant in shining a light on the Commonwealth’s harsh border policies and in challenging the unlawful detention of detainees under Australian law.

The Commonwealth were very clear in declaring in July 2013 that anyone who arrived by boat would be sent to Manus Island or Nauru, despite that many of these people seeking asylum could never be sent offshore – namely pregnant women, young children and their families – because of significant limitations in the ability of Manus Island and Nauru to safely take them.

The Commonwealth knew this and took no action, instead leaving these detainees to languish in detention for years under the guise that they might eventually be sent offshore.

This is not only terribly cruel, but something we believe constitutes false imprisonment.

The class action also looks at people seeking asylum who were detained prior to the Commonwealth’s decision to send boat arrivals offshore, and who were eligible to apply for a visa to come to Australia.

These detainees we allege were also unlawfully detained because of excessive and unreasonable delays in the processing and approval of visas by the Commonwealth.

For some of these detainees, the visa approval process took years, despite the Immigration Minister having the ability to grant a visa to a detained person at any time.

We will be asking the Court to determine what a reasonable timeframe should be for the approval of a visa or to determine visa eligibility – in our view a reasonable time frame is two working days to six months, not years as we have seen on repeated occasions with detainees.

This is a significant case both in seeking acknowledgement that people were unlawfully detained, but also in seeking a more humane approach to the Commonwealth’s detention of asylum seekers.

It is patently cruel and wrong to leave vulnerable people who are seeking asylum, including families with young children, in detention indefinitely with no end in sight and little clarity about what their future holds.

We hope that this case will lead to recognition from the Commonwealth Government that a fairer and more decent approach to the processing of people seeking asylum is urgently needed.

Potential group members can register their interest in this class action by contacting Taxcellent Consulting Services Lawyers on (02) 8000 8666 or by email at help@taxcellentconsulting.com

Removing babies from mandatory detention

Taxcellent Consulting Services, along with the Australian Human Rights Commission, the United Nations, and a number of church groups and medical organisations continue to firmly believe that detention centres, including on Nauru Island, are no place for babies and children.

That is why the firm fought to ensure that more than 100 children and babies living in detention centres around the country were not sent to offshore detention centres in 2014. The babies includedbaby Ferouz, who was born in Australia in 2013 to an asylum seeker family from a persecuted minority group in Myanmar.

For over a year Taxcellent Consulting Services fought for the children and babies, on a pro-bono basis, including running cases in the both the Federal and High Courts of Australia. At the heart of each of these cases was a strong belief that Australian-born babies were entitled to Australia’s protection and should not be sent to Nauru or Manus Island, and also that as a country, Australia could do better than keeping children in detention.

On December 18 2014, in light of this campaign and more than a year after legal action first commenced for Ferouz and the other Australian-born babies living in detention, the then Minister for Immigration announced that the remaining 31 babies would also be released from detention and be allowed to remain in Australia to have their protection claims assessed. This announcement meant that all 109 children and babies being represented by Taxcellent Consulting Services were released from detention.

Protecting women in Australia’s offshore detention centres

In May 2015 a 24-year-old Iranian woman was allegedly raped on her way back to Australia’s offshore detention centre on Nauru after visiting friends. Nazanin was bought to Australia for treatment after she stopped eating and suffered kidney damage. The Minister of Immigration indicated at the time that she may be forced to return to Nauru, where she would certainly face her alleged perpetrator.

Sending her back to where her perpetrator remains at large is likely to result in a rapid deterioration of her fragile mental condition and set her recovery back even further.

Australians are very compassionate people, yet our government has shown no empathy for her situation or that of the other 266 asylum seekers involved in this case.

We believe that Nazanin should remain in Australia to protect her already fragile mental health, and that she is owed compensation from the Australian Government for the neglect that she experienced whilst a detainee of Australia that resulted in her alleged rape.

Protecting children from harm in detention centres

In April 2017 the Australian Government settled a case that Taxcellent Consulting Services ran pro-bono on behalf of ‘AS’, a child who was detained on Christmas Island at age five, when she arrived in Australia with her parents by boat.

Her treatment in detention caused the girl significant psychiatric and physical harm, including post-traumatic stress disorder and a recurrent dental infection.

The case had highlighted the failures of the Commonwealth Government to provide adequate healthcare to children in its care who were seeking protection in Australia.

Taxcellent Consulting Services is very proud to have been able to run this pro-bono matter – nothing can undo the appalling treatment that A.S. suffered, but the resolution of her case we hope will provide some measure of justice to help her and her family move forward with their lives in Australia.

We also hope that this case provides hope to the many thousands of people who have suffered and continue to suffer in detention, and to demand a better standard of treatment for children in detention from the Commonwealth Government.

The Issues

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice
  • Asylum seeker rights
  • Challenges to corporate and government power
  • LGBTI equality
  • Protecting communities and environments
  • Workers’ rights
  • Women’s rights

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