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 ratings decided by an algorithm – but they’re not even told it exists.
Developed by 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.
