One decade of mandatory visa cancellation powers has created a prison to deportation pipeline
Migrants and refugees are facing a two-tiered legal system and discriminatory treatment in prison, as detailed in a new joint report from the Human Rights Law Centre and the University of Melbourne: Prison to Deportation Pipeline: How mandatory visa cancellation creates a parallel form of imprisonment for non-citizens.
Since 2014, visa cancellations on 'character' grounds have increased tenfold, leading to a significant rise in people held in immigration detention for this reason. The report finds that people on visas are set up to fail by discriminatory treatment in prison, with limited access to parole, rehabilitation, and education hindering their ability to have their visas reinstated.
While Australian citizens are granted liberty after serving a sentence, people who are subject to visa cancellation are ‘pipelined’ from prison to immigration detention and deportation from Australia.
These people face a heavy mental burden in prison, exacerbated by the anxiety of potential visa cancellation, limited legal assistance, and uncertainty about prolonged detention – with this pressure often leading to a forced choice to give up and accept deportation.
Quotes attributed to Sanmati Verma, Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre:
“Over the last decade, successive Australian governments have dramatically expanded visa cancellation powers to punish visa-holders and pipeline them between prison, immigration detention and removal from Australia.
“People on visas face a two-track prison system, where they cannot access programs, parole and post-release support available to others, simply because of their visa status. Prison time can be followed by years in immigration detention fighting to have a visa reinstated after cancellation. People on visas are effectively being doubly or triply punished.
“Young people on visas are missing out on crucial schooling and rehabilitation, for no other reason than their visa status.
“This system sets up visa-holders to fail and to lose hope from the moment they are sentenced. It must be dismantled.”
Quotes attributed to Claire Loughnan, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Melbourne:
"Visa cancellation powers have led to the permanent separation of families, disrupted communities, and have returned visa holders – including long-term permanent residents – to destitution in countries with which they have no connection.
“The mental toll that non-citizens experience in prison is immense, with anxiety over visa cancellations creating an environment where many feel compelled to abandon their fight for justice.
“The prison-to-deportation pipeline is a direct result of the discriminatory treatment of visa-holders in prison – it must be urgently addressed.”
Artwork credit: Sam Wellman
Media contact:
Thomas Feng
Engagement Director
0431 285 275
thomas.feng@hrlc.org.au