Amnesty International Australia issued a statement on Tuesday denouncing the Australian federal government’s newly proposed bill reintroducing punitive measures targeting a group of people released from immigration detention emphasizing that it undermines the recent High Court decision and breaches Australia’s international obligations.

The Amnesty International statement follows a recent decision in the High Court of Australia that established that the government could not adopt punitive measures such as curfews and electronic monitoring devices for people released from immigration detention. The court ruled that the imposition of such measures was unlawful and unconstitutional. Amnesty International admonishes the measures introduced by the government as “an attempt to circumvent High Court decisions”, noting they are a “crushing setback for the rights of people seeking asylum.”

Amnesty International rejects the government’s introduction of the Migration Amendment Bill 2024. The bill seeks to reimpose curfews and the use of electronic monitoring devices, which the court considers an infringement of people’s liberty and bodily integrity. The bill would also allow the government to pay third countries to enter into arrangements to accept non-citizens. This would mean any person the government arranges to be “accepted” by a third country would have their Bridging “R” Visa (BVR) canceled automatically, allowing for their removal from Australia. If passed through parliament, the government exercising the power to deport people with canceled visas to unknown third countries would create an offshore warehousing regime effectively reintroducing indefinite detention, which the High Court deemed unlawful in an earlier decision.

Additionally, the bill makes no guarantees for the safety of persons sent to live in third countries, nor does it include any requirement that they will have a permanent right to remain in that country. A similar scheme introduced by the Coalition government in 2014, where refugees were sent to Cambodia, proved to be an “expensive failure” as most of the refugees were forced to leave.

According to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, contracting states must guarantee people seeking asylum the right not to be punished, per Article 31, and non-refoulment per Article 33. Amnesty International “condemns the Government’s attempt to absolve Australia of its international obligations,” consequently exposing refugees to the risk of being returned to countries where they may face harm.

Amnesty International Australia’s Strategic Campaigner for Refugee Rights, Zaki Haidari, said: “The reality is that successive governments have ignored the human rights of individuals, placing political interest ahead of respect and dignity for humans.” Labor and Liberal governments have successively continued Australia’s “abhorrent treatment of those seeking safety and permanent protection through targeted legislation. Haidari says, “The Federal Government must stop playing politics with people’s lives and recognize that refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers are human beings who have fled the most dire of circumstances.”

Non-governmental organizations such as the Refugee Council of Australia, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, and the Human Rights Law Centre have also issued statements voicing their concerns about the bill and the harm it poses to refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers.