It’s been a week full of politicians sounding the alarm about the so-called African gang crisis. Last Tuesday, prime minister Malcolm Turnbull warned about “street crime in Melbourne”. Frontbencher Christopher Pyne kinda backed him up. And then on Monday immigration minister Peter Dutton blamed the recent death of a Melbourne teen on the existence of African gangs. But now former prime minister Tony Abbott has taken things a step further.

What Did He Say?

Speaking on 2GB radio, here’s what Abbott had to say about the issue:

“[Sudanese immigrants are] less than 0.1 percent of the population and they’re responsible for well over one percent of the crimes,” he said, when asked whether there was an African gangs crisis.

“They’re 57 times more likely to commit aggravated robbery than the general community. So there is a problem. It’s an African gang problem and the Victorian socialist government should get real and own up to the fact that there is an African gang problem in Melbourne.”

He didn’t stop there.

“I guess the big question is why do we stir up trouble for ourselves by letting in people who are difficult to integrate?” Abbott said. “And this is why I think all credit to Peter Dutton, who is doing his best to manage our immigration program in our national interest.”

It appears Abbott is arguing for race-based selection criteria when deciding who is allowed into the country — kinda like Donald Trump and his Muslim ban.

Let’s Check The Facts

Abbott cites two facts: that Sudanese immigrants are over-represented in overall crime statistics, and that they’re they super over-represented when it comes to aggravated robbery.

And he’s right. The Victorian Crime Statistics Agency reported that just about one percent of all criminal offenders are either Sudanese or South Sudanese, but together that group makes up 0.14 percent of Victoria’s population.

The stats also show that Abbott was roughly right about aggravated burglaries. In 2016, Sudanese-identifying criminals committed 4.8 percent of all aggravated burglaries. That means that Victoria’s Sudanese population was 34 times more likely to commit an aggravated burglary than the average citizen.

Abbott’s statistics are cherrypicked to try to illustrate his point. In 2016 there were 4280 aggravated burglaries, which means Sudanese-Australians committed 205 of them. But in Victoria, there are usually around 400,000 to 500,000 offences committed every single year: when Abbott talks about the Sudanese population being “57 times more likely” to commit an aggravated burglary, he’s making a comment on criminal activity that makes up less than 0.1 percent of all crimes in Victoria.

And it’s hard to call that criminal activity traditional gang violence. The chairperson of the South Sudanese Community Association in Victoria, who actually understands its community’s activities, told a federal government committee last year:

“We do not think there is an Apex gang per se, other than to say that it is probably a group of young people who come together and maybe open a social media account. They have got connected. There is no hierarchy, nothing that is typical of other gangs that we have seen.”

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission said that the Apex gang was “quite dissipated” and Victoria Police told federal parliament that youth offences were declining, and that the crime rate for overseas born groups was lower than the crime rate for Australian born citizens.

Actual Experts Are Furious

Plenty of people were angry that the former prime minister thought than an appropriate solution to the crime problem would be to question whether we should allow “difficult” people to migrate to Australia at all.

This is what the race discrimination commissioner had to say about it:

It is just wrong to slander all migrants from Africa in this way. African-Australians make valued contributions to our country. As a liberal democracy, Australia must stay true to the values of equality and non-discrimination https://t.co/2BfNIe4XU0

— Tim Soutphommasane (@timsout) July 25, 2018

Lawyer and activist Maker Mayek hit back hard.

I’ve never taken Tony Abbott seriously. I’ve never identified with him. Besides, he’s no longer relevant. He became a prime minister partly due to his colour and partly due to his persistence. He’s below average in all manner of things. So off with his comments, all heard before.

— Maker Mayek (@MakMayek) July 25, 2018

While others took the piss a bit:

I wonder if Tony Abbott ponders Africans' lack of integration… as he sits alone on his back bench. 🤔

— Nancy Cato (@nancycato1) July 25, 2018

We’ve asked Abbott to clarify what he meant by his comments, but he’s yet to respond to our request.