Section 262 — Liability to the Commonwealth for the cost of keeping, maintaining and removing certain persons

262 Liability to the Commonwealth for the cost of keeping, maintaining and removing certain persons

(1) A person who:

(a) is, or has been, detained under section 189; and

(b) was on board a vessel (not being an aircraft) when it was used in connection with the commission of an offence against this Act or against a prescribed law in force in the Commonwealth or in a State or Territory, being a law relating to the control of fishing; and

(ba) is convicted of the offence;

and the master, owner, agent and charterer of the vessel on which the person travelled to Australia, are, jointly and severally, liable to pay the Commonwealth:

(c) the amount applicable to the person under subsection (2) for the cost of keeping and maintaining the person while the person is in immigration detention; and

(d) the cost of transporting the person, and a person holding the person, from the vessel to the place of immigration detention; and

(e) the cost of transporting the person, and a person holding the person, between places of immigration detention; and

(f) if the person is returned to the vessel or another vessel—the cost of transporting the person, and a person holding the person, from the place of immigration detention to the vessel or that other vessel; and

(g) if the person is, or is to be, removed from Australia at the expense of the Commonwealth—the cost of that removal (including the cost of transporting a person holding the person).

(2) The Minister may, by legislative instrument, determine a daily amount for the keeping and maintaining of a person in immigration detention at a specified place in a specified period.

(3) An amount determined under subsection (2) is to be no more than the cost to the Commonwealth of detaining a person at that place in that period.

(4) To avoid doubt, the liability to pay the Commonwealth an amount under subsection (1) may be enforced:

(a) at the time the person is convicted of an offence mentioned in paragraph (1)(b); or

(b) after the person has served the whole or a part of any sentence imposed upon the person because of his or her conviction of an offence mentioned in paragraph (1)(b).