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When Gus Kuster finished a one-year prison sentence in Australia, he anticipated rebuilding his life there, in the only country he has ever known. Instead, as a noncitizen and stateless person, he spent the following five years being shuttled between grim immigration detention centers, with seemingly no release date in sight.<\/p>\n
Dozens of other people, none of them Australian citizens, have been subjected to the same experience. Some, like Mr. Kuster, had served time for minor crimes, others had been found guilty of serious crimes like murder, and a handful had no criminal background at all.<\/p>\n
Australia has been criticized for years internationally for its harsh treatment toward asylum seekers, many of whom were housed in the country\u2019s infamous offshore detention<\/a> centers, where a few dozen people still remain. But hundreds more are still held indefinitely in similar institutions onshore. Until very recently, that included people who were once given a shot at life in Australia, then had that opportunity snatched away after they committed crimes.<\/p>\n Last month, many of these indefinite detentions came to an abrupt end. A detainee successfully challenged the two-decade precedent in Australia\u2019s highest court, and in the ensuing weeks, more than 150 people have been freed. Just as many cases are under review.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But the ruling has drawn an intense backlash within Australia, where many citizens feel the safety of the community far outweighs the country\u2019s obligations to people who are both migrants and, in many cases, criminals.<\/p>\n The political establishment, the news media and the public at large have also denounced the ruling, saying that the former detainees do not belong in the general population. A handful of the recently freed detainees have been arrested after being charged with new crimes, adding fuel to the fire.<\/p>\n Under pressure from the right-wing opposition, the government has responded by quickly enacting onerous requirements such as curfews and ankle bracelets on former detainees like Mr. Kuster, in effect throwing them into another kind of purgatory. It has also established a \u201ccommunity protection board\u201d<\/a> of officials who will decide whether some of the worst offenders could again face preventive indefinite detention.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it were up to me, all these people would still be in detention,\u201d Clare O\u2019Neil, the home affairs minister, told Sky News. \u201cSome of these people have done deplorable, disgusting things, and I do not want these people in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Many Australians who find it intolerable to have these individuals in their midst have called for all of them to be detained again \u2014 despite the cost to taxpayers of more than $280,000 annually per detainee, according to the Refugee Council of Australia<\/a>, a nonprofit \u2014 or transported to another nation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That is essentially impossible, said Alison Battisson, a lawyer at the firm Human Rights For All, who has represented Mr. Kuster.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one who has a criminal record has ever been resettled anywhere else,\u201d she said. \u201cIt might feel distasteful, but Australia is a rich country, and we can accommodate these people.\u201d<\/p>\n The detainees themselves have emerged shellshocked from the experience, during which they said they were shunted from one detention facility to the other. Some say they were served child-size meals and subjected to what they described as dehumanizing behavior.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s humiliating and demoralizing \u2014 the whole setup of it,\u201d said Mr. Kuster, who was in prison for breaching a restraining order and was freed from immigration custody last month. \u201cIt\u2019s a horrible, horrible place.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A small number of those released under the new ruling do not have a criminal record. In 2013, Ned Kelly Emeralds, who legally changed his name<\/a> as an act of dissidence, arrived on Australian shores on a boat after fleeing his native Iran. His appeals for asylum were rejected on the grounds that his fear of returning to his homeland was not well-founded, but because he could not be deported under international law he found himself in detention.<\/p>\n \u201cOver 10 years ago, I came to Australia to seek protection from torture in my country and instead I was tortured,\u201d Mr. Emeralds said in a statement. \u201cI had no way to escape. I could not go home, and the government chose not to release me.\u201d<\/p>\n