ASIO has issued its first adverse security assessment against a child - a Kuwaiti asylum seeker who repeatedly attempted suicide after being held in immigration detention for more than a year.
The ASIO decision, for which no explanation has been given to his lawyers, condemns Ali Abbas, who arrived by boat as an unaccompanied 16-year-old in 2010, to deportation or indefinite detention.
It also appears to contradict evidence given by ASIO to a parliamentary inquiry in December that no child had been blocked as a refugee on security grounds.
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Ali was found to be a genuine refugee by the immigration department in April, so cannot be forcibly returned to Kuwait. A federal court judge has meanwhile urged the immigration department to move him to a ''supportive residential or family based environment'' after hearing medical evidence detention was putting his mental health and safety at risk.
The ASIO decision has been condemned by refugee groups. ''We would find it hard pressed to see how a child could have committed serious crimes against humanity or poses an ongoing threat to the Australian community,'' said the chairwoman of Children Out of Immigration Detention, Kate Gauthier.
Ms Gauthier said ASIO had no expertise in dealing with children, and she was concerned the agency's assessment criteria bore little relation to security guidelines in the United Nation's Refugee Convention.
An ASIO spokesman confirmed to the Herald that the case was the first time ASIO had issued an adverse security assessment to ''an irregular maritime arrival aged under 18 years''.
On December 16, ASIO had told a parliamentary inquiry in writing that it had never refused security clearance to a minor, although the immigration department had asked the agency to assess 304 teenagers aged between 16 and 18.
Ali was officially told of the ASIO assessment on December 15, the day lawyers challenged his continuing detention in the federal court.
''This adverse security assessment was issued subsequent to ASIO's appearance at the parliamentary inquiry into immigration detention,'' said the ASIO spokesman yesterday. The director-general of ASIO, David Irvine, appeared on November 22, and dismissed claims that ASIO assessed young children.
Ali turned 18 on December 31. An immigration department spokeswoman said his case would be back in court next Monday.
Meanwhile, as two boats, carrying 35 and 16 passengers, were intercepted in Australian waters yesterday, a senior Indonesian immigration official admitted a move by his government to ease visa restrictions on Sri Lankans may affect Australia.
Sri Lankans have comprised one of the largest group of asylum seekers travelling by boat to Australia from Indonesia.
The director general of immigration for Indonesia's law and human rights ministry, Bambang Irawan, was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying ''there's the potential for the new policy to lure more boat people heading to Australia''.
Indonesia is also considering easing restrictions on Afghans, another large source of boat arrivals, to give more discretion to its overseas embassies to grant a visa.smh.com.au
