More indefinite detentions

New Zealand First is banging the xenophobia drum again, complaining about the difficulty of deporting people when they refuse to sign the papers required for their travel documentation (something which incidentally is entirely in the hands of the destination governments, not the New Zealand government). But their xenophobia has served a useful purpose: it has highlighted the use of prolonged detention without trial in New Zealand.

According to answers to Parliamentary questions, there are 51 people currently detained under the Immigration Act (table here [PDF]). Nine of these are detained under s59, essentially waiting for their plane. 16 are detained under s128, which applies to people who show up without permits or are refused entry at the border. These are usually refugee claimants, and so most are held at the Mangere detention "accommodation" centre (though three are in prison, all from Muslim countries, one who has been held for six months). The remaining 23 are detained under a Warrant of Commitment issued under s60, and it is this group which is most troubling. Section 60 allows people to be detained for up to three months on a monthly warrant of commitment where it will take more than three days to make travel arrangements (either because they have no documentation, or because of timetabling issues) - and this seems acceptable. The problem is that it also allows longer detention where people refuse to cooperate in their own deportation. As many of those detained under this clause are failed refugee claimants who have very good reasons not to return home (for example, they fear being killed or tortured, regardless of how the New Zealand authorities (who you can safely say have never faced such danger) assess the risks), it can result in effectively indefinite detention.

We saw this in the case of Thomas Yadegary, who was freed in April after being imprisoned for more than two years for refusing to sign a passport application he views as his own death warrant. But Yadegary isn't the only one. According to the Ministry of Immigration's figures, there are six people - four Iranians, a Chinese and a Czech - who have been imprisoned for more than a year. Two of them have been imprisoned for more than two years - without any sort of trial, let alone a conviction. They are in prison purely for the convenience of the authorities, in an effort to coerce them into signing travel documents.

This is simply wrong. Regardless of what you think about immigration and the need for deportation, this sort of prolonged detention without trial goes against our deepest values. Throwing people in jail and keeping them forever is the sort of practice indulged in by absolute monarchs, third-world despots, or the Americans in their Caribbean gulag in Guantanamo - not by my New Zealand.