The family of an autistic teenager who was targeted in an Australian federal police undercover terrorism operation was detained in Singapore and blocked from international travel after a “red flag” was put on the boy’s passport, despite him being cleared of any criminal offending.
The boy, his parents and two primary-school aged siblings were held overnight in Singapore last month, leading the family to speak out about their treatment at the hands of Australian authorities.
The boy, now aged 17, was held in a room with more than a dozen other detainees, one of whom asked him to “come under the blanket with me”, his father said.
In their first public comments since their son was charged in 2021, the Melbourne family, who cannot be identified, said they had encouraged their son to plan the overseas trip to Singapore and Malaysia as a way of overcoming the trauma of his case.
But the trip resulted in further anguish when the boy was prevented from entering Singapore and the family were detained at the airport before, being forced on a plane back to Australia the day after leaving for their 10-day trip.
This was despite the boy, given the pseudonym Thomas Carrick by the Victorian children’s court, being given his passport back in November last year and the family saying they were told there was no restriction on his travel.
“[It] was a part of his rehabilitation, like for us it was something that could … cheer him up, so that he can feel important and have a holiday,” his mother said.
Thomas was 13 when the joint counter-terrorism team (JCTT), which comprises Australian federal police, Victoria police and Asio members, started investigating him as part of an undercover operation.
He was charged with two terror offences shortly after his 14th birthday. But the court granted a permanent stay in the case in October 2023, in part because undercover operatives posing as Islamic State sympathisers were found to have “fed” the boy’s fixation on the terror group.
“The community would not expect law enforcement officers to encourage a 13-14 year old child towards racial hatred, distrust of police and violent extremism, encouraging the child’s fixation on ISIS,” the magistrate, Lesley Fleming, said in the decision, revealed by Guardian Australia.
“The community would not expect law enforcement to use the guise of a rehabilitation service to entice the parents of a troubled child to engage in a process that results in potential harm to the child.
“The conduct engaged in by the JCTT and the AFP falls so profoundly short of the minimum standards expected of law enforcement offices [sic] that to refuse this [stay] application would be to condone and encourage further instances of such conduct.”
Thomas planned for his family to spend three days in Singapore and then six days in Kuala Lumpur before flying home.
But he was prevented from entering Singapore, detained with his family for about 30 hours, then escorted on to a flight home by five armed Singaporean officials.
The family were told the reason for not being allowed to enter the country was that a “red flag” or “red alert” had been put on Thomas’s passport. They were also told this would make it impossible for them to enter many countries, including Malaysia.
Thomas, a sibling, and his father were among 16 detainees held in a room filled with bunk beds. Thomas’s father said the room was constantly lit, making sleep almost impossible. Thomas’s mother and youngest sibling were held in a separate room.
They handed over all their possessions and had their shoelaces removed.
Thomas, who his parents said did not fully comprehend what was happening, found it strange that the bathroom had no soap or towels. When the father went outside the room briefly for a cigarette, another detainee asked Thomas if he wanted to share his bed, his father said.
During an interview shortly after the family were prevented from entering Singapore, Thomas’s parents were asked a series of questions, including about their employment, how long they had lived in Australia and where Thomas went to school.
It was not until they were asked why Thomas was arrested that they realised the reason for their detention.
‘We do not deserve this’
It is Thomas’s family asking questions now. Why did this happen? What did they do to deserve this? When will they be able to travel overseas again? And are they continuing to be targeted because of their faith and the colour of their skin?
“This is not fair,” Thomas’s father said. “This is not human. This is not Australian. Is this because we have dark skin? Yes, we are dark skinned. Yes, we are Muslims. Yes, we are Australians like anyone is.
“We work hard … and we love this community and this country. We do not deserve this.
“Let us live our lives peacefully. Let us raise our children in a proper way. Let us forget what happened to us.”
David Shoebridge, a Greens senator and the party’s justice spokesperson, wrote to the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, requesting urgent consular assistance for the family while they were detained.
Thomas’s father said when he spoke to a government official in Canberra while they were detained the official was aware of the family’s history but said nothing could be done. The family are Australian citizens.
“It is hard to believe that the government has made things worse for this family, but they did by failing to warn them that countries like Singapore would likely use the AFP investigation to detain them,” Shoebridge said, adding: “Why didn’t they just do the decent human thing and say to this family that if they travel to Singapore they may well face detention and this kind of humiliation?”
Shoebridge, who has met with the family after they returned to Melbourne, said authorities must come clean on what alerts had been placed on Thomas’s passport and why.
“One question the AFP needs to answer immediately is did they provide information to the Singaporean authorities that led to the detention and the retraumatising of this family?”
The Department of Foreign Affairs, the AFP and the Department of Home Affairs were contacted for comment.
An AFP spokesperson said: “This is a matter for Singaporean authorities.”
