Australia’s Immigration Detention and COVID-19

By Emma Carolan, CRA Justice Research Officer

According to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s recently released report Inspections of Australia’s immigration detention facilities 2019, by September of this year the average period that an individual was held in Australian immigration detention was 581 days, higher than it has ever been before. This represents a dramatic increase of 81 days on average since 2019. 

This increase comes at a surprise, given the plea of health authorities to reduce the COVID-19 risk in immigration detention. Closed detention facilities, where non-citizens without a valid visa might be detained until they are granted a visa or leave the country, have been shown to facilitate the spread of COVID-19, making immigration detention a high-risk environment. The report revealed that this risk is exacerbated by some of Australia’s immigration detention facilities operating over their operational capacity, having overcrowding in some compounds with dormitory-style accommodation and having communal bedrooms, toilet, and shower facilities. Additionally, many people in immigration detention have pre-existing conditions that would put them at a higher risk of severe illness if they contracted the virus. Further, these conditions place staff who work at immigration detention facilities at risk of also contracting the virus and through their movements, potentially spreading it to the broader Australian community. The Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases in March this year thus urged the Australian Federal Government to:

“Consider the release of detainees into suitable housing in the community if they do not pose a significant security or health risk. As a minimum standard, we would recommend that detainees should be held in single rooms with their own bathroom facilities. While this would not fully address the risk associated with COVID-19, and it certainly would not be as effective as reducing the overall numbers in immigration detention facilities, it would go some way to reducing the risk and could be considered the absolute minimum necessary step.”

• Granting Bridging visas to permit community living for a specified time.

• Expediting the consideration of ongoing visa applications, to fast-track the release from detention of people who are set to be released in the near future.

• Ensuring in the above scenarios that people receive adequate social support.

Likewise, the End Childhood Detention Coalition (ECDC) has compiled research on alternatives to immigration detention for children, which can be viewed here. The ECDC state that:

“There are higher levels of psychopathology in children and adults detained in Australia than identified in most international studies. Alternatives enable human rights to be upheld, especially in the case of children, where it is accepted by UN bodies that detention is a violation of their human rights and not observing the fundamental principle of acting in the best interests of the child.”

According to the ECDC, the alternatives that allow individuals to reside and be managed in the community are far more cost effective than detention, reduce litigation, overcrowding and unnecessary long-term detention, support wellbeing and successfully manage migration. Their research shows that these alternatives foster more successful processing of asylum claims, with 95% attendance rates at migration hearings, and up to 69% of those whose cases who are refused, returning to their countries of origin voluntarily. You can see a video on alternative forms of detention for children here.

In contrast, measures taken by Australia’s Federal Government to reduce the risk of COVID-19 have included suspension of personal visits to immigration detention facilities and having detainees eat meals in their rooms to meet social distancing recommendations. Anyone with flu-like symptoms has been tested and isolated and new arrivals into detention have been placed in quarantine. Further, Christmas Island was re-opened in August, after being used as a quarantine facility for Australian citizens evacuated from Wuhan, China earlier in the year. Australian Border Force announced that due to global border closures preventing their ability to remove unlawful non-citizens from Australia, individuals would instead be transferred to Christmas Island. The re-opening of this facility for six months is estimated to cost $55.6 million.

Jana Favero, Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, commented on Australia’s actions,

“The Asylum Seeker Resource centre is highly concerned for our clients held by the Morrison Government in detention centres during hard lock down and rising case numbers. Many are experiencing rapidly deteriorating mental and physical health and need to be released into the community where they can protect themselves and go into lock down like the rest of Victoria. Instead of following the advice of medical professionals, the Government is resorting to removing people offshore to Christmas Island, intentionally out of sight and far away from their case workers, legal representation, and community support networks, risking mental health even further.”

To support alternative forms of detention for Australia’s Asylum Seekers, you can sign up as an individual or organisation to the ECDC’s Global Campaign to end child immigration detention, and share the campaign on social media. Alternatively, you can make a donation to the ECDC through their website here.