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RACS responds to ‘catastrophic’ Federal Court data breach
The Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS) has called for claims for protection from people seeking asylum to be re-examined, following a “catastrophic” data breach occurring at the Federal Court of Australia.
Emma Musgrave
In a statement issued to the media, RACS said the claims must be re-examined after the Federal Court of Australia confirmed that the personal details of hundreds of people were disclosed on the searchable Commonwealth Courts database.
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“Publicly disclosing the names of people seeking asylum beside their pseudonyms means that anyone searching the internet can access the background information surrounding a person’s claim,” said Sarah Dale, centre director and principal solicitor of the Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS).
“If these people were to be sent back to their countries of origin, authorities and perpetrators of persecution could use this information to enforce punishment or worse.”
Ms Dale noted that approximately 400 people currently seeking asylum have been identified as people who had details wrongfully published, prompting RACS to call for Minister of Home Affairs Peter Dutton to urgently intervene “and allow for the re-examination of claims, of all people affected, given the potential new danger they may now face”.
“The Federal Circuit Court has essentially enabled the very private and intimate details of people’s abuse, persecution and trauma to be accessible by their perpetrators,” Ms Dale added.
“Something must be done to protect these people.”
In 2019 alone, the Federal Circuit Court and the Federal Court of Australia reviewed over 6,500 refugee and migration matters, according to RACS.
Arif Hussein, senior solicitor at RACS, works with people seeking asylum with applications at the Federal Circuit Court and said it is imperative that people seeking asylum “can be confident that their personal information is protected by our institutions, including the court system and the Department of Home Affairs”.
“Our laws recognise the importance of protecting the personal information of people seeking asylum. That’s why pseudonyms are used in any matters relating to refugee applicants,” Mr Hussein said.
“This breach not only places people seeking asylum at great risk of danger and heightened anxiety, it also breaks Australian law.”
