An Iranian asylum seeker locked in two Melbourne hotels for more than a year has called the experience “torture” and is challenging the federal government’s decision to detain him.
Key points:
- Mostafa Azimitabar says he was traumatized by being locked in a room for 23 hours a day
- His lawyer says the minister had no power to detain him in hotels
- Amnesty International says the case could trigger hundreds of follow-up claims
Mostafa Azimitabar spent 15 months detained at the Mantra Hotel in Preston and the Park Hotel in Carlton before being released on a bridge visa in January last year.
He has initiated legal action in the Federal Court to seek unspecified damages for the trauma caused by his arrest.
Azimitabar alleged that he was locked in a room for 23 hours a day without being able to open the window and subjected to more than 400 body searches.
“People see the place as a hotel, but inside the hotel there was no tranquility,” Azimitabar said outside the courthouse.
“It was a torture center, and it was worse than the island of Manus.”
Mr Azimitabar, an Iranian Kurd, spent about nine years in detention of immigrants after arriving by boat.
Mostafa Azimitabar spent 15 months in the Park (pictured) and Mantra hotels under medical evacuation laws. (ABC News: Simon Tucci)
He was first transferred to an immigrant detention center on Christmas Island and later spent some time on Manus Island before being transferred to mainland Australia in November 2019.
Its transfer was possible thanks to a modification of the Migration Law that became known as the “Medievac Law”.
It required the federal government to transfer detainees to the Isle of Manus in Australia if they needed medical treatment.
“I did not receive any medical treatment, I received punishment, I received torture from the government and I still have the trauma,” Azimitabar said.
Michael Bradley argues that the immigration minister does not have the power to detain people in hotels.
Azimitabar’s attorney, Michael Bradley, said the case depends on whether the immigration minister was allowed to detain people in hotels, which the immigration department calls Alternative Places of Detention (APOD).
“Our argument is that power [to detain people in APODs] it doesn’t exist, ”Bradley said.
“There is nothing in the Migration Act that gives this power to the minister, so the APODS have no legal personality whatsoever.”
Bradley said it was too early to say exactly what compensation Mr. Azimitabar.
“Much of his trauma was aggravated very deeply by the 15 months he spent at APOD, so we would anticipate a fairly significant damage verdict if we succeed,” he said.
The human rights organization Amnesty International supports the case of Mr. Azimitabar.
Amnesty International’s Tim O’Connor said other people detained in hotels would be watching the case closely and could also take legal action.
“There are hundreds of people who have been locked up in these hotel prisons, and potentially, if we succeed, they will all be included as well,” O’Connor said.
Commonwealth lawyers told the Federal Court that it would argue that the Migration Act gives the minister the power to create APOD and that the minister acted legally by delegating that authority to department officials who created the Mantra and Park hotels.
The case before Judge Bernard Murphy is set for two days.