Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram has defended the treatment of Chinese international students who arrived hours after the federal government announced travel bans to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
University officials on Tuesday demanded an apology for students they say were distressed after being questioned by Border Force officers at Australian airports on Sunday.
The 47 students were part of a larger group of 80 passengers who were initially refused entry to Australia.
Sixty-one people were eventually allowed to stay in Australia, while 18 decided to return to China.
One has been held in a serviced apartment in Brisbane before their expected return to China later today.
'We do act with compassion'
Mr Outram defended the conduct of Border Forces staff, saying they appropriately exercised the discretion afforded to them under the travel bans.
Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said on Tuesday that the students were detained for "unreasonable hours", food withheld, their luggage taken and were told their visas would be cancelled.
"My officers on the ground acted absolutely professionally and diligently," he told ABC Radio on Wednesday. "We do act with compassion."
He said visas were cancelled and then subsequently renewed under the powers of the Migration Act.
"And the conditions these people were kept - these people were provided with food and drink at the airports. And we didn't imprison people. We took people to hotel and serviced apartment accommodation, very comfortable accommodation to keep them there.
"We didn't put them into our detention centres. So we were very conscious of the situation that these people were in."
'I'm proud'
He rejected claims from China's embassy in Canberra that officials and students on flights were not properly informed of the travel ban, leaving Chinese students in the lurch.
"We are not happy about the situation because they were not alerted. There was not enough time to be alerted about the restriction," the Chinese Embassy's deputy head of mission Wang Xining said in Canberra on Tuesday.
Mr Outram said it was "a difficult situation, in many ways unprecedented" but he was proud of the conduct of the Border Force staff.
"I don't accept that my officers acted inappropriately. It is a very unfortunate situation for everybody...So I'm proud of the fact of the way we responded to it."
'People were kept informed'
He said officials in Beijing were promptly informed of the Morrison government's travel ban and measures put in place to renew visas.
"For example, the flight had taken off an hour after the decision was announced then we put in place immediately measures to review their visas. So those people were kept informed of what was going on."
The 61 people allowed to stay after the travel bans came into effect are being monitored by the state and territory health departments as they stay in self-isolation for the coronavirus two-week incubation period.
"And then they can get on, and get on about their studies, get on about their work," Mr Outram said.
"I accept that people's travel was disrupted. I accept that some people had to be detained under the Migration Act in accommodation such as I have described."
