The Australian federal police has blamed the Department of Home Affairs for the circumstances which led to the arrest and detention of Hakeem al-Araibi in Thailand.

Under questioning at Senate estimates in Canberra on Monday, it was revealed home affairs took almost three weeks from when it first received Al-Araibi’s red notice to when it told the AFP he was a refugee, by which time he was already in a Thai cell.

Al-Araibi was arrested on 27 November last year when he arrived in Bangkok with his wife for their honeymoon. Thai authorities presented an Interpol red notice, issued at Bahrain’s request, as the basis for his arrest.

It would eventually be revealed that Bahrain was granted the red notice against Interpol’s policies which protect refugees from the country they fled.

In his opening statement the AFP commissioner, Andrew Colvin sought to address much of the criticism that had been directed at his organisation’s role in Al-Araibi’s ordeal.

The AFP acts as Interpol’s Australian national central bureau (NCB).

The red notice had been issued “in good faith by Interpol” but if they had all the “relevant facts”, including that Al-Araibi was a refugee, they would not have issued it, Colvin said.

Colvin told estimates neither the AFP or NCB can access visa information and they relied on the department to tell them if a red notice subject was a refugee.

In Al-Araibi’s case that took almost three weeks and did not occur until after Al-Araibi was arrested.

“On 8 November 2018 at the request of Bahrain, Interpol issued a red notice for Mr Al-Araibi, which the AFP conveyed to the Australian border force on the 9 November,” he said.

“Neither the AFP nor the Australian NCB was aware of his refugee visa status. This was not known until after his detention in Thailand.”

“The home affairs department provided Mr Al-Araibi’s visa status to the AFP on 28 November, the day after his arrest in Thailand.”

The red notice was turned around within 24 hours.

The deputy AFP commissioner, Ramzi Jabbour, said that under Australian processes, the Australian NCB notifies home affairs of a new alert and if the department finds a match in their protection visa records it informs the AFP.

The NCB then asks for permission to inform Interpol and have the red notice cancelled, which was what happened in this case, said Jabbour.

“But not until after he was arrested,” replied Greens senator Nick McKim.

“Regrettably that is correct,” said Jabbour.

Estimates also heard that on 27 November – the day Al-Araibi left Melbourne – ABF “requested advice [from the AFP] about whether there was any lawful authority that prevented the travel, given that Mr Al-Araibi was subject to a red notice”.

This was standard procedure, Jabbour said, adding that the ABF asked if he could be detained on the basis of the red notice.

Colvin said a red notice was not treated as a warrant to arrest in Australia, but “in border force’s mind” they wondered if there was a way to prohibit him leaving.

“The answer was no.”

Colvin said he was confident the Australian NCB had adhered to the policies and procedures of Interpol, and told the hearing the home affairs portfolio was reviewing the chronology of events in an attempt to improve information exchange procedures.

Head of home affairs, Michael Pezzullo, defended his department and said there were “tens of thousands” of alerts in a system that was largely manual.

Pezzullo said the commissioner of the ABF, Michael Outram, would answer more specific questions later on Monday, but noted the AFP and ABF were independent organisations despite both being under the home affairs umbrella.