Ten refugees who had been in indefinite Australian immigration detention after adverse security findings have been released since August, Fairfax Media reports.
Since 2010, more than 50 people have been deemed refugees but were unable to be released into the community because the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) had concerns that they were a risk to national security.
But Asio has released 20 of them in the past two years, reversing its own decision to detain the refugees.
“As at 6 January 2015, there are 34 people who have been determined to be a refugee currently in detention who are subjects of an adverse security assessment issued by Asio,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection told Guardian Australia.
A spokesperson for Asio told Fairfax Media that the agency had issued 12 revised security assessments for refugees in indefinite detention over the past six months. Two refugees remain in detention despite the revised assessments.
“Asio reviews security assessments when new information becomes available,” the spokesperson said. “New information can relate to the individual or to external factors, including changes in the security environment.”
Refugee advocates have criticised Asio’s handling of the cases, saying that refugees were not told why they had failed their security assessment, and were not able to challenge the findings in tribunals.
The federal government had made an election promise to scrap reviews for refugees who had adverse security findings, but backed down on that promise late last year.
Former federal court judge Margaret Stone will continue to examine the Asio findings for another two years, after the attorney general, George Brandis, extended her term.
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