Australia’s immigration department suppressed the name of a detention contractor because it was concerned about an ongoing campaign to boycott companies linked to such centres.
The admission appears to highlights the growing concern within government and in the private sector about the political climate around Australia’s immigration detention regime.
Australia’s offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru are heavily privatised and are run by several multinational companies that specialise in these services.
But concerns continue to be raised about Australia’s controversial immigration detention policies. Allegations of abuse and concerns about conditions have continued to be raised over successive years. In August 2016 Guardian Australia revealed the Nauru files, a catalogue of incident reports that set out the assaults, sexual abuse, self-harm attempts, child abuse and living conditions endured by asylum seekers held by the Australian government.
The companies that manage the centres have become the target of major boycott campaigns, notably GetUp’s No Business in Abuse initiative led by Human Rights director Shen Narayanasamy.
Documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal a series of internal deliberations between departmental officials over how they could justify not disclosing the identity of a controversial subcontractor under Australia’s freedom of information laws.
The deliberations concerned the identity of a private investigator subcontracted by Wilson Security to attempt to uncover journalists’ and activists sources from within the detention network. The revelations that the investigator had been contracted to pursue journalists’ sources sparked heavy criticism from the Media Alliance, Labor and the Greens when Guardian Australia first reported the allegations last September.
The documents outlined that the investigation targeted the source of reports written by activist Shane Bazzi about sexual assault and self-harm on Manus Island, as well as a Guardian Australia report into a guard on Manus Island being sacked for allegedly assaulting a handcuffed asylum seeker.
But the details of the investigator remained secret. An email sent by a department officer set out the reason for the suppression: “I have not located any information in the public domain to identify that these third parties undertook work for a subcontractor of the department, I have taken this into consideration along with the current environment and the media reporting on the boycotting of companies.”
The officer then links to a number of stories from the ABC, Guardian Australia and the activist group Getup about boycotts. He continued: “For this reason I consider that an exemption is available to protect the third parties business affairs.”
Getup’s human rights campaign’s co-director Matthew Phillips said the organisation had just learned the government had sought to keep the companies subcontracted a secret.
“They have done this because they recognise that the financial and legal risks of being associated with the abusive system of detention are too great for any company,” he said.
“The government has granted this secrecy because they too understand that no company would want to be associated with their abusive regime of offshore detention.
“Keeping companies tasked with investigating the sources of journalists is appalling, but entirely consistent with the efforts by the Australian government to deny people seeking safety basic protections and the opportunity to rebuild their lives.”
Guardian Australia had initially sought access to all reviews of staff misconduct held by Wilson Security, which is subcontracted through Broadspectrum to provide security services on Manus Island and Nauru.
But the decision to suppress the name of the private investigator on these grounds was never previously disclosed when it initially made the freedom of information applicants. It only emerged when Guardian Australia sought access to the emails behind the initial freedom of information decision.
There was a lengthy delay to process the request for the reviews. Initially the immigration department formed the view it was not required to obtain copies of the reports from Wilson Security at all. This was later overruled in legal advice provided by other departmental officers.
But the delay in getting Broadspectrum to provide the documents to the department continued for several months. One department officer wrote: “Im assuming you guys are continuing to have trouble getting anything out of BRS?” Another later wrote: “A delay of this nature was unusual in my experience with Broadspectrum. I even got [redacted] to weigh in for me on a couple of occasions. I was never given any reason for the delay.”
The boycott campaign against companies involved in Australia’s immigration detention regime has targeted a number of big contractors, particularly Broadspectrum.
No Business in Abuse and other groups have been working to persuade investors to put pressure on Transfield over its role managing Australia’s asylum seeker processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island by divesting, and encouraging local businesses not to contract with the company.
Broadspectrum, which is now owned by Spanish infrastructure company Ferrovial, has announced it will not make a further bid to provide services on Manus Island and Nauru. But Australia’s immigration department extended its contract a further eight months in August 2016, and it has not yet withdrawn services from the detention facilities.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection declined to comment.
