Australian Border Force officials blocked Northern Territory senator’s visit to the detention centre despite being given the green light from Serco

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Australian Border Force officials denied Labor senator Nova Peris access to Christmas Island detention centre, despite the facility being in her electorate.

Peris, who represents the Northern Territory, sought access to the centre from Australian Border Force officials on 8 October, when she was already on the island, but was denied. She had applied via the centre’s management company, Serco, before arriving on the island, and had been given the green light from them.

“The Department of Immigration and Border Protection facilitates visits to detainees by their families, friends and other individuals for the purpose of providing social and familial contact,” the rejection letter, seen by Guardian Australia, said. “Visits by individuals for research, education and other purposes are not consistent with this principle.

“Given the scope of your request, we regret that we are unable to facilitate this visit,” it said.

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Peris stayed on the island for four days, speaking to locals and government officials, before leaving on 12 October.

The timing of the senator’s visit coincided with a visit to the centre by the immigration minister, Peter Dutton.

Peris told Guardian Australia she was disappointed that she could not visit the facility.

“It is a significant trip to get there and the Australian public have been denied the opportunity for an elected representative to observe a taxpayer-funded facility, and on a matter of national importance,” she said.

“I was aware that the immigration minister Dutton was on the island and visiting the centre at the same time, surely this would have made facilitating a visit even easier?



“I was shocked to learn in today’s estimates that no border officials were made aware of my request, despite immigration officials admitting that I am within my rights to visit,” she said. “This raises questions about whether minister Dutton has anything to hide. I have never been denied access to any other facility within my electorate.”



Michael Pezzullo, the secretary of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, which takes in the Australian Border Force, said he was unaware of Peris’s application to visit the detention centre.



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“It’s not personally known to me,” Pezzullo told Senate estimates on Monday. “I probably would have expected to be advised if a senator asked, but I’m not aware [of her application].”

Border Force requires official visitors, including senators and MPs, to give a week’s notice of their arrival.

The rejection letter issued to Peris from department officials does make note of considerations relating to the timeframe of requests, but does not list this as the reason that access to the centre was denied.

The commissioner of the Australian Border Force, Roman Quaedvlieg, said official visits needed more time to process because they posed greater risks.

“Visitors with a higher profile bring a greater security risk in terms of managing that person through a centre,” he told Senate estimates. “We need to ensure they don’t create a public disorder event, or in fact aren’t vulnerable to any kind of assault themselves. So it does require a higher level of assessment.”

The deputy commissioner of Australian Border Force, Michael Outram, said there had been a small riot on the island two days before Dutton and Peris’s visit.



“A number of these detainees decided they were going to misbehave and they equipped themselves with makeshift weapons,” Outram said. “The Serco measured response team very quickly went in and got things under control.”