Muhammad, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, says being held in immigration detention on Christmas Island was they worst experience of his life.
He's still traumatised by the experience and says even when he finally arrived in Australia after years in detention, he's not being treated with respect.
He spent his first six years in detention after being detained on arrival after escaping Pakistan by boat.
He told SBS he lived out the most traumatic years of his life on Christmas Island.
He says he was treated like a high-risk criminal, even though he had never committed a crime, which he found "very humiliating".
"10 to 13 years people stay in Australian immigration detention. And then on the other hand there is Australian people who did armed robbery, assault on people, and even second degree killed and they're released 5 to 8 years."
"It really breaks my heart and somehow I feel like we still don't have that justice," he said.
He said one of the most difficult things to deal with psychologically was the constant uncertainty.
"Immigration and Border Force… they transfer me mostly everywhere in Australia, like from Darwin to Perth, then to Christmas Island, then to Melbourne. This journey, you never know where you will be."
He was denied the chance to study, and also said he recalls being forced to eat food expired by up to seven months.
"But [I] came to Australia, I realise Australian dog is better than a human being… I wish I was a dog in Australia so I can have at least respect.”
For people like Muhammad, Australia’s immigration detention regime coming under scrutiny at the United Nations is welcomed.
United Nations to evaluate the nation’s detention processes
This week, the UN working group on arbitrary detention has begun a 12-day mission to assess Australia’s detention practices. This includes in prisons, police stations and institutions for juveniles, migrants and people with psychosocial disabilities.
It has sparked renewed calls from a national coalition of legal, academic and advocacy organisations for Australia to totally overhaul immigration detention.
Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS) centre director and principal solicitor Sarah Dale is a contributor to the join submission.
She told SBS News: "Australia is one of the very few countries, if the only country in the world, that mandates detention on arrival for unlawful non-citizens. So, that principle of mandatory detention is one that we have long stood against.
"We are deeply concerned by the securitisation of immigration detention… and they are two key things that constantly sit as a concern for RACS."
Another contributor from the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, Madeline Gleeson, said for her organisation, concerns begin at the decision to detain.
"These decisions are made by government officials. And so one of the main concerns raised in the submission is that we need a better system, a fairer system, and a more independent system, which allows us to have more confidence that people are not being detained in the first place except where it is lawful to do so."
International law allows deprivation of liberty only as a last resort after all viable alternatives have been considered, and only when detention is reasonable, necessary and proportionate to a legitimate purpose.
"Yet in Australia, detention is automatic for all unlawful non-citizens," Gleeson said.
Visit comes after High Court’s decision criticisms
The working group’s visit to the country comes after the ongoing fallout from the High Court’s NZYQ decision.
In 2023, the court ruled indefinite immigration detention is unlawful when there is no real prospect of removing a person from Australia in the reasonably foreseeable future.
The judgement led to the release of around 140 people, including some convicted criminals. The government has since made a secretive $400 million deal to resettle them in Nauru.
But it also prompted new legislation tightening visa conditions and enabling preventative detention orders in limited cases.
Human Rights For All director and principal Alison Battison addressed the working group in Geneva last year.
She told SBS: “People who have committed no crime in relation to their visa or immigration status are warehoused in what effectively are prisons for an unknown period of time.
“What occurs at the moment is that on a monthly basis, a case manager looks at a person’s file like a desktop review, doesn’t actually read any documents, and then determines with a very basic checklist whether a person’s detention is lawful or not.”
When asked about its offshore detention program, a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs recently told SBS News in a statement: "The Australian Government is committed to resolving the transitory persons caseload temporarily in Australia through third country migration outcomes and continues to work with resettlement partners to identify resettlement opportunities."
Gleeson said mechanisms for reform already exist.
"They just need the law that gives them the ability to make those decisions.
"We also have bodies such as the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Australian Human Rights Commission, which have long histories of overseeing immigration detention."
She said if these were properly resourced, they could "play an important role in ensuring detention is not arbitrary or unlawful."
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