Mass deportations ruled out under immigration powers

A wave of mass deportations has been ruled out after federal parliament granted the minister powers to pay third countries to take people in immigration detention. The laws granting that power were in response to the High Court forcing the release of some 200 immigration detainees after ruling indefinite detention was illegal. The cohort had been in limbo without a visa and with no prospects of removal to a third country. Their release caused a political headache for Labor after the coalition seized on alleged reoffending to slam the government for not doing more to keep them locked up following the court's ruling. The laws had the potential to cover more than 80,000 non-citizens who had been convicted of crimes, an inquiry heard, but Immigration Minister Tony Burke ruled out mass deportations. "There was some bizarre speculation ... that we're about to deport 80,000 people," Mr Burke told Sky News on Sunday. "I'm not about to make some big, grand announcement of a mass deportation or anything like that." The powers were a contingency to cover a small number of people who refused to leave voluntarily and "who then lawyer up and say, 'well, I'm not going anywhere'," Mr Burke said. Following Mr Burke's comments, Greens senator David Shoebridge, who opposed the law, said the 80,000 figure was still at risk from a future minister, singling out the coalition's hardline immigration policies as a threat. Senator Shoebridge also denounced a ban on mobile phones in detention centres that passed parliament with Labor and coalition support as part of a suite of migration laws in its final days of sitting. Asked why detainees' free communication needed to be blocked, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said community safety was the top priority. "We will do what we need to do to keep Australians safe," he told ABC's Insiders. The phone ban would hamper allegations and reports of human rights abuses in detention centres from getting out, Senator Shoebridge said. Detention centres must ensure detainees losing access to personal phones were able to contact their family and lawyers in another way, Mr Burke said. This amendment was the basis on which Labor supported the power this time around despite voting against similar coalition legislation previously, he said. It was necessary to ensure criminal gangs weren't able to operate out of detention centres, with about 90 per cent of people having a criminal conviction, the minister said. "We do have challenges where people who are members of outlaw motorcycle gangs, where people who have connections to organised crime have been wanting to run operations through detention centres," Mr Burke said. It was up to the courts to determine criminal punishment with people convicted of crimes having served their prison time, Senator Shoebridge said. If there was evidence of drug dealing or illicit behaviour, then law enforcement could apply for a search warrant and remove phones, he contended. "People are not in immigration detention because they've committed a crime, they're in immigration detention because of their visa status," he said. "The immigration system should deal with immigration matters, not be a quasi-criminal system." The suite of migration laws was an attack on the rights of refugees that would separate families and return people to harm, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Deputy CEO Jana Favero said. Mr Burke also defended powers allowing him to ban visa classes - such as business visas - from nations who refused to take their citizens Australia was trying to deport due to policies of not accepting forcible removals. The threat of bans resulted in a change of attitude from some countries after the laws passed, he said.