which the claim to refugee status or asylum is based; to deal with cases where
refugees or asylum-seekers have destroyed their travel and/or identity
documents […] or to protect national security or public order”.62 In addition,
the case law of the UN Human Rights Committee provides that detention of
non-citizens may be arbitrary under the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights if “it is not necessary in all the circumstances of the case and
proportionate to the ends sought.”63
215.
In relation to the assertion of the Complainant that the arrest was “random”
and the detention “arbitrary”, the Commission has to determine whether the
arrest was necessary, reasonable, and proportionate to a legitimate
government objective. One of the grounds given by the State for why the
people were rounded up is the belief on the part of the State, based on the
declaration by UNHCR, that the protestors included persons who do not meet
the refugee criteria as well as illegal migrants. This is supported by the actions
of the State, which included the release the following day of all people with
legal residence permits and persons from Darfur, a region which at the time
was known to be in crisis. Given that initial identification is one of the
circumstances in which detention may be justified, and that women and
children, in addition to people with legal residence permits and persons from
Darfur were released the following day, the Commission finds that taking the
protesters into detention was not arbitrary, as it served a legitimate
government purpose and was not disproportionate.
216.
Besides the proper justification of detention, the right to liberty also includes
procedural components. However, immigration detention proceedings are
often accompanied by fewer procedural safeguards than criminal proceedings,
since it is considered to be an administrative procedure. The main procedural
safeguards include the right to review of detention; and right to communicate
and consult with legal counsel of his choice. According to the UN Body of
Principles (§13), “[any] person shall, at the moment of arrest and at the
commencement of detention or imprisonment, or promptly thereafter, be
provided by the authority responsible for his arrest, detention or
imprisonment, respectively with information on and an explanation of his
Detention of Refugees and Asylum-Seekers No. 44 (XXXVII) – 1986 Executive Committee 37th session.
Contained in United Nations General Assembly Document No. 12A (A/41/12/Add.1).
63 A. v. Australia. (1997) 560/1993; Danyal Shafiq v. Australia (2006) 1324/2004.
62
59