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Australia's Asylum-Seeker Database Leaked

posted by Dopefish on Friday February 21 2014, @08:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the another-nope-from-down-under dept.

RobotMonster writes:

"The Guardian reports that a vast database containing the full names, nationalities, location, arrival date, and boat arrival information for a third of all asylum seekers held in Australia -- almost 10,000 adults and children -- had been inadvertently released by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection in one of the most serious privacy breaches in Australia's history.

The disclosure of the database is a major embarrassment for the federal government, which has adopted a policy of extreme secrecy on asylum-seeker issues. As the department is likely to have breached Australia's privacy laws, it will be interesting to see what the repercussions are for the people who should be held responsible."

 
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  • (Score: 1) by qwade on Sunday February 23 2014, @11:21PM

    by qwade (1006) on Sunday February 23 2014, @11:21PM (#5363)

    ...if the identity of a refugee became known, that in itself would be sufficient to trigger permanent protection, for fear of persecution if that person were returned

    ooh - conspiracy theory time - let's say you worked in federal government and were one of the decent sort that sees asylum seekers as actual people instead of the invasive force of freeloaders that the media paints them as and are actually trying to help. So if you "accidentally" let out the information that would identify an asylum seeker, they would be more or less guaranteed to get asylum ...