Australia needs a specialist envoy dedicated to freeing its citizens arbitrarily detained by rogue nations, a senate committee inquiry has recommended.
The practice of “hostage diplomacy” is an increasing threat, the senate committee found, and Australians should be specifically warned that authoritarian regimes in some countries – naming China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Mali and Myanmar – arbitrarily detain Australian citizens.
The report from a five-month inquiry into the wrongful detention of Australian citizens overseas, tabled in parliament late this week, found the department of foreign affairs and trade’s regime for managing cases of wrongful detention was “inconsistent and inadequate”, and frequently unfair.
“While recognising that government officials require some degree of flexibility to be able to negotiate the return of an Australian citizen, it is clear that there is a concerning lack of consistency and fairness in determining whether someone has been wrongfully detained, and therefore what level of consular support they receive.”
The report, from the senate’s foreign affairs, defence and trade references committee, was, in parts, scathing of Dfat’s handling of hostage diplomacy cases.
“Flexibility is too often a cover for incoherence and subjectivity.”
Dfat told the committee it placed “a very high priority” on supporting Australians and their families in cases of wrongful detention, and had “a clear focus on resolving the case and ensuring the detainee’s welfare”.
But the report said evidence put before the committee detailed “significant shortcomings in Dfat’s current management of wrongful detention cases”.
“Submitters informed the committee that while individual Dfat officials often undertook commendable work, current departmental operational policies impeded case resolution and were not conducive to effective, compassionate communication with detainees and their families.”
The report recommended Australia establish a dedicated Special Envoy for Wrongfully Detained Australians, resourced with its own office and expert staff.
The office would lead the management of cases of wrongfully detained Australians overseas, with dedicated family liaison contacts, and coordination between those detained, their families, and legal representatives.
The office would also provide: “a greater level of ongoing support for victims of wrongful detention post-release, including medical support and counselling, and assistance navigating legal and administrative issues created by a wrongful conviction”.
The committee report cited the US’s special presidential envoy for hostage affairs – established by former US president Barack Obama in 2015 – as well as Canada’s newly installed senior official for hostage affairs as a stronger response to the practice of hostage diplomacy, and a better way of managing complex detention cases.
The senate committee found Australians overseas were at increasing risk of being arbitrarily taken hostage by foreign governments seeking to leverage their detention for political, financial or diplomatic purposes.
“Through no fault of their own, some find themselves used as pawns and bargaining chips in geopolitical games, purely by virtue of their Australian citizenship,” its report said.
Beyond the geopolitics, the human cost is immense, the report argued. Being wrongly detained is a “terrifying, isolating, and dehumanising experience”, with those held often suffering inhumane treatment and human rights violations.
“They are denied any semblance of justice, unable to access help, and cut off from their families and the rest of the world. They often face the hopeless prospect of indefinite detention and are totally reliant on the efforts of their government to secure their release.”
In public hearings, the committee heard from high-profile Australians who had been arbitrarily detained, including Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was detained in Iran for 804 days, Prof Peter Greste, held in Egypt for 400 days, and Cheng Lei, detained in China for more than three years. All have since been freed and returned to Australia.
Also freed in recent years have been Prof Sean Turnell (detained in Myanmar), Chau Van Kham (Vietnam) and Ken Elliott (Burkina Faso). But a number of Australians, including Yang Hengjun (China), Robert Pether (Iraq), and Mo Munshi (Mongolia), remain imprisoned or held overseas by arbitrary travel bans.
Moore-Gilbert, speaking on behalf of the Australian Wrongful and Arbitrary Detention Alliance (Awada) urged the Australian government to adopt all 18 of the committee’s recommendations in full and to ensure a special envoy is “speedily appointed”.
Moore-Gilbert told the Guardian the establishment of a properly resourced envoy would “revolutionise” the way wrongful detention cases are handled, assisting not only the detained person, but their family back home.
“Knowing that one person is responsible in government, that this is the person tasked with getting your loved one out, would make an enormous difference.”
