Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has defended an "innocent" human error made by a Border Force officer which contributed to the two-month detention of refugee footballer Hakeem al-Araibi in Thailand.
Al-Araibi, a permanent resident of Australia, was arrested in Bangkok in November after Bahraini officials pursued him over vandalism charges.
The 25-year-old returned to Melbourne last week after Thailand decided to drop extradition proceedings against him.
Senate estimates was told an Australian Border Force officer neglected to inform the Australian Federal Police and Department of Home Affairs that al-Araibi was under protection.
That would have prevented Thailand being alerted to an Interpol red notice issued against him.
"It is clear that human error occurred within the ABF process," Australian Border Force boss Michael Outram told the Senate committee on Monday night.
Mr Dutton said there were thousands of notices coming in from Interpol, which led to the mistake.
"There's a human error that's taken place," Mr Dutton told Sky News on Tuesday.
"They've made an innocent mistake, it wasn't some deliberate action.
"There are processes in place to make sure as best as we humanly can it doesn't happen again."
The AFP has also identified a "gap" in its handling of the case, but apportioned most of the blame to Home Affairs.
The AFP, which hosts an Interpol office and has staff seconded there, flagged the Interpol notice with border authorities.
However, the federal police and Interpol were unaware al-Araibi was a refugee.
"Neither the AFP nor the Australian Interpol NCB can access this information; we rely on notifications from the Home Affairs department," AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin told the committee.
"The Home Affairs department provided Mr al-Araibi's visa status to the AFP on the 28th of November, the day after his detention in Thailand."
Interpol would not have issued the red notice if it knew about al-Araibi's refugee status.
The day after al-Araibi was arrested in Thailand, an AFP officer emailed Home Affairs about his case.
Bahrain raised separate allegations with Interpol that the 25-year-old departed Australia on fake travel documents.
An AFP employee raised this matter with Home Affairs, who informed them al-Araibi's documents were legitimate.
Home Affairs also flagged the fact he held a protection visa; this was the first time the AFP learned of his visa status.
However, the department's response slipped through the cracks.
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