The opaque risk rating system, used in Australian detention centres, is riddled with errors and effectively makes the company ‘judge, jury and executioner’, says one former detainee
Imagine there’s a secret rating that dictates where you sleep and whether you are forced to wear handcuffs to a doctor’s appointment. And imagine that rating is based on incorrect information or unfair assumptions about the type of person you are. In Australia ’s immigration detention centres , each detainee is given security risk rating s decided by an algorithm – but they’re not even told it exists.
Serco, the company tasked with running Australia’s immigration detention network, the Security Risk Assessment Tool – or SRAT – is meant to determine whether someone is low, medium, high or extreme risk for escape or violence. Immigration insiders, advocates and detainees have told Guardian Australia the SRAT and similar tools used in Australia’s immigration system are “abusive”, “a blunt instrument” and “unscientific
Australia Detention Centres Risk Rating Algorithm Serco Security Immigration System