VPRS 8888 Magistrates' Court Register of Applications for Detention of Illegal Immigrants

Full description

These registers were used to record applications for the detention of illegal immigrants. An illegal immigrant is defined as a person without Australian citizenship who breached conditions of their temporary entry permits. They were otherwise known as prohibited non-citizens. If a person was suspected of being an illegal immigrant an application was made to a Magistrate for their detention. The Magistrate, if satisfied there were reasonable grounds that the person was a prohibited non-citizen could authorise their detention. During the period of detention the responsible Minister was required to decide whether the person was an prohibited non-citizen and should be deported.

The majority of deportations result from illegal immigrants overstaying their permits or obtaining employment.

The Federal Parliament is vested with the power to make laws respecting immigration, hence further information will be found in the Commonwealth Migration Act 1958.

Registers are generally in a common format, giving details of the case number, the name of the prosecutor or informant usually: (name) followed by "an officer of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs", the name of the defendant, how the case came to the court (normally "application"), the charge, cause or proceeding, for example: "application under S.38 Migration Act for an order of detention as an illegal immigrant", the decision/order etc such as: "application granted" or "remanded in custody for 7 days pending determination of the minister".

In order to authenticate entries made in the register the presiding Magistrate signed the register at the end of each day.