The Wire

A criminologist at Monash University has called for border-related deaths to be included in the National Deaths in Custody monitoring program managed by the Australian Institute of Criminology. Sharon Pickering argues that deaths en-route and post-entry into Australia and deaths in immigration detention centres remain invisible in the official count of deaths in custody. She and fellow researcher Dr Leanne Weber have set up the only database on border deaths based on official data that stretches back to 2000.

Professor Pickering says such an omission raises questions of accountability and has implications for asylum seeker policy. In a media statement to The Wire, a spokesperson from the Australian Institute of Criminology says the organisation is holding ongoing consultations with the Immigration Department to explore the potential of examining deaths in immigration detention in the National Deaths in Custody monitoring program.