Mystery Australian Among 600 Detainees
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday November 30, 2001
Mass detention by the United States of foreigners on immigration charges has ensnared an Australian, but the person's identity, whereabouts or the specific allegations are unknown.
The Australian embassy in Washington said yesterday it had no idea an Australian was among the 548 foreigners rounded up after the September 11 terrorist strikes until the Justice Department released scant details about the detainees this week. Under a tough new approach that has appalled civil liberty groups and some members of Congress the US is keeping the foreigners in custody indefinitely.
The Australian was detained on October 17 under the Immigration and Nationality Act's provision involving people ``present in the United States in violation of law". An Australian embassy spokesman said inquiries were being made with the Justice Department about whether the person had been offered consular access, as required under international law.
It is unknown whether the person is male or female, but the detainees are overwhelmingly men of Arab and Muslim background. Pakistanis comprise the biggest group, with 208 in custody, and 74 detainees are Egyptian. Almost all are accused of overstaying their visas, giving false information or entering the US without permission.
The dragnet tactics have angered several foreign governments, which have accused the US of heavy-handedness about mostly minor immigration irregularities that normally do not involve detention. The immigration detainees are separate from 104 people charged with criminal offences, almost all of whom have been named. At least seven embassies have reportedly complained about the slow processing of the cases and the State Department's failure to inform governments that their nationals are in custody.
A Pakistani detainee, Mr Mohammed Rafiq Butt, who died last month in custody of an apparent heart attack, was unknown to his embassy before his death. There have also been reports of detainees being beaten by guards and other inmates.
Under the 1963 Vienna Convention governments that detain foreigners have to give them the option of notifying their government's representative.
The embassy spokesman said it was possible the Australian national had not asked for consular help. ``We only become involved if people request it."
A coalition of 21 Arab-Americans and human rights groups have demanded that the US provide a list of people jailed and where they are being held.
``It is like the government has declared war on foreigners," said the executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Jeanne Butterfield.
The Attorney-General, John Ashcroft, was annoyed when pressed about the detainees this week, saying he would not release their names because he didn't want to ``blacklist" them and because some were members of the terrorist group al-Qaeda.
``I am not interested in providing, when we are at war, a list to Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network of the people we have detained that would make any easier their effort to kill Americans," he said.
Yesterday, an assistant Attorney-General, Michael Chertoff, told Congress the detention of hundreds of people was justified to prevent ``sleeper cells" planning further terrorist attacks.
© 2001 Sydney Morning Herald