Fingerprinting 501s is a breach of their human rights!

Stuff reports:

A 501 deportee had several human rights breached by the Government and his treatment was unlawful, the High Court has found.

Two thousand people have been deported from Australia to New Zealand since 2014 under s 501 of Australia’s Migration Act 1958, giving them the name “501” deportees. …

The judgment, delivered by Justice Cheryl Gwyn in the Wellington High Court, found that the deportee’s treatment as a 501 returned prisoner from Australia breached the right to natural justice, freedom of movement, and to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.

Additionally the government had breached the prohibition against retrospective penalties and double jeopardy.

New Zealand law allows the Government to apply strict parole-like conditions to returning offenders, and was passed to deal with deportees from Australia like G. It applies to anyone returning from another country after serving a year or more in prison, within six months from when they were released from custody.

Just another sign that the justice system is here for criminals, not victims.

Parliament explicitly passed a law to allow authorities to do stuff like collect fingerprints from the deportees. But Justice Gwen has decided in an Alice in Wonderland like judgment that this doesn’t apply to deportees who had already committed crimes overseas, but only to future deportees who commit future crimes. This was very clearly not the intent of Parliament.