The Australian government has refused to apologise to an immigration detainee who was thrown to the ground and handcuffed by guards on Christmas Island.
The Australian Human Rights Commission found Serco officers used disproportionate force against the detainee, identified as NR, in March 2021.
“The use of force was not justified as reasonable and necessary,” commission president Rosalind Croucher said.
“Serco officers did not treat NR with humanity or inherent respect for his dignity.”
The detainee, who spent nearly a decade in detention after his visa was cancelled in April 2014, was held at North West Point Immigration Detention Centre on Christmas Island.
Private security giant Serco is contracted to manage the centre.
Less than a week after his arrival, NR was forcibly restrained by five officers.
The incident came after NR asked to be moved to another compound rather than the one assigned to him, out of fear of another detainee who’d allegedly previously assaulted him.
When his requests were repeatedly rebuffed, he lashed out verbally.
According to the commission’s report, the detainee posed no threat when two officers grabbed both of his elbows.
It’s alleged NR resisted the officers before the situation escalated, with five guards eventually standing on him.
After being handcuffed, he was carried to another room.
The commission attached to its report still images from security footage.
The human rights watchdog asked the Department of Home Affairs for further video and photo evidence from the officers’ body-worn cameras, but was told the files could not be downloaded as the cameras were too old.
University of Sydney law academic Louise Boon-Kuo, who argued in a paper published this year that Serco’s risk assessment tools are flawed, said foul language and shouting without physical aggression can contribute to a detainee being classified as ‘high-risk’.
“Immigration detention itself is already a form of violence and one that stigmatises people as ‘dangerous’,” she told AAP.
“These dynamics can foster recourse to force instead of listening to individuals in detention, negotiation, and de-escalation.”
The commission shared its findings with Home Affairs in April. In July, the department refused to apologise.
“The department does not consider it appropriate to issue an apology or provide NR details of the internal review at this time,” Home Affairs said in a written response.
Home Affairs rejected another recommendation to update its rules around officers seeking approval before engaging in force.
The department argued it could “be operationally impractical or potentially negligent to delay a response to an incident while approval is sought”.
NR was released into the community after a landmark High Court ruling, which deemed indefinite detention unlawful.
The ruling forced the federal government to free more than 150 detainees, placing them instead under strict supervision.
