Mistake by an Australian immigration official led to three years behind bars for a legal resident

THE locking up of an Australian resident for more than three years in what is said to be the nation's longest and worst case of wrongful detention has prompted demands for an overhaul of federal laws by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. Revelations that a Sydney man, Van Phuc Nguyen, spent 1173 days at the Villawood detention centre because of bungles and indifference by public servants have sparked calls for an apology from the Rudd Government.

While Cornelia Rau was given $2.6 million after being wrongfully detained for 10 months, the Government offered Mr Nguyen only $57,900 - less than $50 for each day he was held. His barrister described the offer as a ''wholly inadequate and inappropriate'' response to a ''bureaucratic bungle of enormous proportions''. Last month the ACT Supreme Court awarded $55,000 to a man wrongfully detained for just 29 days.

Speaking publicly for the first time, Mr Nguyen said he was routinely threatened by other detainees and left severely traumatised by his three years, two months and 16 days at Villawood, between November 2002 and February 2006. Mr Nguyen said he witnessed suicide attempts, stabbings and widespread drug use while at Villawood's notorious Stage One wing, which the Human Rights Commission said last year was so bad it should be demolished. ''It was terrible. I was so scared all of the time of the other inmates … after a while, my mind started to shut down. I just sat there and stared at the wall.''

Mr Nguyen fled his native Vietnam by boat as a 14-year-old, spent four years in a refugee camp in the Philippines and was given permanent residency in 1989.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman, John McMillan, told the Herald the Immigration Department repeatedly failed to act on information that could have avoided Mr Nguyen's ''alarming and serious'' predicament in the worst case he had seen. ''Arguably it should not have occurred at all and certainly not for anything like the period of time,'' Mr McMillan said.

The catalyst occurred in 1995, when an immigration official unlawfully and mistakenly issued Mr Nguyen with a one-month visa that led to the cancellation of his residency on his return from a trip to Vietnam.

Before Villawood, Mr Nguyen served several stints in prison for drug offences linked to a heroin addiction formed after an illness and the death of his mother in the mid-1990s. He said he had been clean for several years.

The 37-year-old's barrister, Robert Sutherland, SC, said his client had been subject to ''high-handed, humiliating and unnecessarily long detention. This man deserves an apology and appropriate compensation.'' Mr Nguyen's lawyers said his doctors had found he was traumatised and suffering mental health problems as a result of his wrongful detention.

Mr McMillan has stated Mr Nguyen's case should result in legislative reform to provide a safety net for people adversely affected by government decisions and laws, ranging from improper detention to unfairly missing out on government benefits.

He said it was a foundation principle of civilised society that people should not be unlawfully deprived of their liberty. ''Wrongful detention for over three years is a matter of grave concern, and it is equally a matter of concern that our legal framework does not confer powers necessary to address problems and disadvantage of this kind,'' Mr McMillan said.

The Federal Government denied that bungling and indifference led to Mr Nguyen's detention in its compensation offer. The offer concedes that he was wrongfully detained for 108 days but says that during the rest of his detention officials had no reason to suspect a mistake had been made.

Original report here. (Via Australian Politics)



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