One of the most shameful, disgraceful things the Australian government started doing under John Howard and still indulges in under Kevin Rudd is this business of deporting people on permanent visas on character grounds. A few years go, they deported a Serb Robert Jovicic and a Turk Fatih Tuncock, and many others. Today, it is reported that yet another such deportee Andrew Moore died last October, 2 days after being deported, due to an overdose.
A DEPRESSED father with known drug and alcohol problems died from a heroin overdose two days after Australia deported him to Britain and left him at Heathrow Airport with a cash allowance of about $700 in his pocket, a British coronial inquiry has found.
Scottish-born Andrew Moore, 43, had lived in Australia for 32 years, but had never become a citizen, when the government removed him last October for failing the Migration Act's character test after he served a sentence for manslaughter.
Mr Moore's family in Australia, including a teenage son, and supporters had pleaded for him to be allowed to stay due to severe physical and mental illness. The family says the government failed him, and legal and migration experts say it could have prevented his death, but the Immigration Minister and his department deny any responsibility.
Mr Moore's government-appointed doctor, Ed Morgan, provided him with an open letter to British doctors warning that he was at risk of relapsing into alcohol, heroin and benzodiazepine abuse.
''He has expressed fears that in a new country with limited support he will again be likely to relapse,'' Dr Morgan wrote. ''Having known Andrew for many years I … feel drug and alcohol support is paramount to his ongoing care.''
In a statement, Mr Moore's family expressed their ''disappointment at the failure of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to put in place sufficient support networks for Andrew on his deportation to the United Kingdom. This is particularly given that Andrew had lived most of his life in Australia and was being deported to a country that he had no existing connection to.''
The government does not owe a duty of care to non-citizens, but the family's lawyer, Natasha Andrew, said: ''It begs the question, where the department has been put on notice of a detainee's significant physical and psychological illnesses, as was the case with Andrew Moore, whether deporting an individual in these circumstances amounts effectively to an additional layer of punishment beyond any ever sanctioned by our judicial process.''
The London policeman who investigated the death, Detective Constable Matthew Porter, concluded that Mr Moore had used the cash allowance to buy heroin, the inquest at London's Southwark Coroner's Court heard.
All of this is stuff that's been talked about before. Clearly policy doesn't seem to have changed, and the Department of Immigration is continuing with what is essentially social sadism whereby the Australian Government gets to mete out a second punishment worse than the incarceration handed out by the judge for the crime.
This bit is clearly the kind of bureaucratic sadism that Kafka would be proud of:
The Australian government booked accommodation and a drug and alcohol appointment for Mr Moore, but the inquest was unable to confirm whether he used either service before dying in the hallway of a South London apartment block two days after being escorted to Britain by a doctor, two federal police officers and an immigration official.
The coroner noted removal happened despite representations from Mr Moore's parents.
In other words, "say goodbye to Oz mate, and here's your one last bit of money and an appointment so you can sod off and die." How can the government of Australia not bear moral responsibility for Mr. Moore's death? How can there be government bureaucrats in the Department of Immigration going home to sleep safely in their beds tonight when they've done this to another human being without trial, without review, without any recourse? How do these people sleep at nights?
Well, here's how:
A department spokesman said: ''The coroner's findings do not alter the department's earlier position that Mr Moore had no lawful right to remain in Australia. He was assessed by a medical professional as fit to fly, he had an appropriate treatment plan in place and the department had made contact with relevant UK authorities about his ongoing care''.
Cloaked in the impassive statement that seeks to distance itself from the grisly, flesh-bound reality of Mr. Moore's death - Just following orders, we see. Clearly the Nuremburg defense is alive and well in Australian bureaucracy. I'm sure this immoral, banal-evil, bureaucratic claptrap works very well for Kevin Rudd equally well as it did for John Howard. If anybody thought there was a difference in the two when it comes to social attitudes, they can toss that notion away.
Amazingly, these people will keep cushy their jobs, even when this shit hits the fan eventually. It's truly diabolical.
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