KEY POINTS:
- The release of Said Imasi remains shrouded in mystery after Labor refused to comment.
- Mr Imasi's lawyers are unable to say how long he's been allowed to stay in Australia.
- Mr Imasi spent 13 years in Australian detention centres.
Mystery shrouds the release of a stateless man after a decade in detention, with his lawyers unable to reveal how long he's been allowed to stay, and the immigration minister declining to do so.
Lawyers say the case of Said Imasi, who was released from Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre on 9 May, highlights a gaping hole in Australia's immigration system, which throws stateless people behind bars by default.
An independent MP who lobbied for his release has described indefinite detention as a "huge blot on Australia's conscience" and called for its repeal.
SBS News understands Mr Giles personally intervened in the case. Source: AAP / Bianca De Marchi
SBS News understands Immigration Minister Andrew Giles personally intervened to free him, though he would not be drawn when asked for details, saying on Monday: "It's not my practice to comment on individual cases due to privacy grounds."
Said Imasi's lawyer can't reveal visa details
Mr Imasi's lawyer Allison Battisson, director principal at Human Rights For All, confirmed he had been granted a visa and described him as "extremely grateful".
But she could not confirm how long he had been allowed to stay in Australia, whether he could work, or even whether he would be able to apply for a longer-term visa.
“We would hope that throughout the life of this visa, his case would be looked at sensibly to progress towards a more permanent outcome for him in terms of settlement," she told SBS News.
Ms Battisson did reveal her client had found accommodation at “no cost to the taxpayer” and was being cared for in a “manner which is appropriate for somebody who's been through this ordeal”.
She said he was shocked by the "dichotomy" between conditions in detention and his reception in the community.
"He thought the community volunteers who used to go in [to see him] were a bit of an anomaly. Now, he's recognising that in fact Australia is full of lovely, generous, well-meaning and welcoming people," she said.
“[But] it is an enormous emotional and mental challenge for him … We can all see the impact that realisation, that the nightmare is finally over, is having on him both in a positive and negative way.”
Lawyers say cases expose holes in Australia's immigration system
Mr Imasi has no identifying documents, and he says he does not know exactly where or when he was born – although he believes he was born in Spain's Canary Islands in 1989, and was taken to Western Sahara as a newborn.
He was arrested at Melbourne Airport on suspicion of carrying a fake passport in 2010, and his lawyers launched a failed attempt to overturn indefinite detention in the High Court in 2019.
Ms Battisson said, while some elements of the case were unusual, stateless people accounted for roughly 10 per cent of people in Australian detention, though details were not consistently kept.
Mr Imasi spent more than a decade in detention, and was released from Villawood last week. Source: AAP
"It's our system that is not responsive to the needs of stateless people, not the other way around ... It's an incredibly oppressive environment (in detention). It's very violent," she said.
“I have clients with intellectual disabilities … [who] are so mentally ill that they cannot basically function. This is what the taxpayers are funding for $430,000 a year: to torture vulnerable people who have no other option than to be here.
"[Mr] Imasi is very conscious of the people left behind in detention, and does not believe that it is a place for anyone.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has warned the Sudanese civil war has exacerbated a refugee crisis already gripping the country, estimating 200,000 people had been forced to flee since violence erupted last month.
Ms Battisson said people born in Sudan - along with Myanmar's Rohingya population and the Middle East's Kurdish people - are especially likely to be deemed stateless.
"This will increasingly be a growing issue around the world with mobility [increasing] and as environmental disasters and conflicts continue," she said.
Allegra Spender calls indefinite detention a 'blot on the Australian conscience'
Independent MP Allegra Spender, who has communicated with Mr Imasi over the past year, praised "the gentleness and humanity" he had demonstrated throughout his detention.
Ms Spender met with Mr Imasi at her Sydney office just days after his release.
"We were looking at the view ... He was saying: I hope my children, my grandchildren get to experience this as well," she said.
"What you hope for [for] everybody is that they can look forward, and make plans, and have a vision of their lives."
While praising Labor for expanding pathways to permanency and moving to abolish temporary protection visas, Ms Spender called for indefinite detention to be outlawed.
“It's a huge blot on the Australian conscience ... It just doesn't chime with how we think about ourselves, with this idea of a fair go, or of a compassionate and welcoming country," she said.
“I hope very much that … this is the start of the end.”
