Malcolm Turnbull on Manus Island - Play Misty for Me?

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Construction workers walk around the secure perimeter fence of the Refugee Processing Centre at Lombrum, Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. 2014. © Vlad Sokhin / Panos Pictures

This morning Malcolm Turnbull urged Australian taxpayers, and soon-to-be voters, not to be "misty-eyed" about the plight of those imprisoned in the Australian-funded and operated 'Immigration Processing Centre' on Manus Island.  

No, Mr Turnbull, I am not "misty-eyed" about the Manus detention centre. But I am clear-eyed about the law. 

False imprisonment is a tort attracting awards of substantial damages. It is apparent from the judgement of the PNG Supreme Court, as it must have been to successive Australian Governments, that those detained have been falsely imprisoned, and that the damages to which they are entitled are mounting by the day. 

Perhaps more importantly, they have been deprived of their liberty, and deprivation of liberty, as in Australia, is a serious crime.  Under section 355 of the PNG Criminal Code. It is punishable by up to three years imprisonment.  Before Minister Dutton and his officials fly off to Port Moresby they might also ponder section 13:

OFFENCES PROCURED OR COUNSELLED BY PERSONS OUTSIDE PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

(1) A person who–

(a) while outside Papua New Guinea procures another person to do or omit to do an act in Papua New Guinea of such a nature that, if he had himself done the act or made the omission, in Papua New Guinea, he would have been guilty of an offence; and

(b) afterwards comes into Papua New Guinea,

is by coming into Papua New Guinea guilty of an offence of the same kind, and is liable to the same punishment, as if he had himself done the act or made the omission in Papua New Guinea.

(2) A person who–

(a) while outside Papua New Guinea counsels or procures the commission of an offence that is actually committed in Papua New Guinea; and

(b) afterwards comes into Papua New Guinea,

is guilty of an offence of the same kind, and is liable to the same punishment, as if he had been in Papua New Guinea when the offence was committed.

No, Mr Turnbull it is not an Immigration Processing Centre.  It is plainly, as you as a lawyer must have known, and as the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea has held, an illegal prison, funded, controlled and operated by the Commonwealth.