The man we know only as “NZYQ” is a convicted child sexual abuse offender. I don’t know the details of his crime, but I’m confident the three-year, four-month minimum sentence he got for it wasn’t enough. I am equally sure that the desperate facts of his personal history — he is a stateless Rohingya Muslim refugee who came to Australia by boat, still a teenager when he offended — offer no excuse.
Nevertheless, the criminal justice system’s failure is not for the migration system to repair. The High Court was inarguably right in declaring NZYQ’s indefinite detention unlawful for want of constitutional power, and granting him habeas corpus that mandated his release.