The Australian Border Force has admitted “human error” by its officers resulted in police being unaware that footballer Hakeem al-Araibi was a refugee before he was issued with a red notice and detained in Bangkok for more than two months.
ABF commissioner Michael Outram said an officer failed to send a “true match notification advice” to the Australian Federal Police and the Department of Home Affairs, which would have alerted them to the fact that he was on a protection visa in Australia.That fact – revealed to the AFP the day after Mr al-Araibi was arrested in Thailand – prompted Interpol to cancel the “red notice” issued at the request of Bahrain. Had it been known to the AFP beforehand, the AFP-based Interpol team would not have issued the notice.
The email notification is a manual, not automatic, process. Mr Outram told a Senate estimates inquiry on Monday night that “having reviewed the circumstances surrounding Mr al-Araibi, it is clear that human error occurred within the ABF process”.
Mr Outram conceded that the mistake made by the ABF directly resulted in the AFP informing Thai authorities that a red notice existed for Mr al-Araibi.
However, he would not apologise to Mr Al-Araibi for the consequences of that failure, saying his detention could have occurred by some other means, such as direct contact between Bahrain and Thailand.
“I apologise for the error that occurred wthin the Border Force, but I can’t say – nor can I accept – that that error necessarily led to his detention in Thailand, that it wouldn’t have occurred anyway,” Mr Outram said. “That’s the point I’m making.”
Bahrain authorities had pursued Mr al-Araibi over allegations he vandalised a police station, which he denies.
Earlier on Monday, AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin told the same Senate estimates inquiry that at the time of Mr al-Araibi’s departure from Australia, “neither the AFP nor the Australian Interpol NCB (National Central Bureau) was aware of Mr al-Araibi’s visa status”.
“Neither the AFP nor the Australian Interpol NCB can access this information – we rely on notifications from the Home Affairs department,” Mr Colvin said.
Mr al-Araibi was eventually freed from detention in Thailand last week when the office of that country’s attorney-general dropped the extradition case against him. It followed a sustained public campaign by retired Australian football captain Craig Foster.with theage / AAP
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