Locking up freed immigration detainees under terrorism protection laws has been floated after a High Court ruling.
Some 93 ex-detainees—including three murderers and several sex offenders—are being fitted with ankle monitors and face imprisonment if they breach tight reporting requirements after being released from detention in recent days.
The High Court is yet to release the full reasons for its landmark ruling that holding people indefinitely in immigration detention was unconstitutional.
The finding was based on the premise that indefinite detention was a form of punishment and only the courts had the power to discipline criminals, not the minister.
Emergency legislation to enforce strict monitoring and reporting rules for the freed detainees passed federal parliament on Thursday.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the government had been caught flat-footed and more should have been done to keep the serious offenders behind bars.
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