Migration experiences Defining Moments, 1945–present

Learning module:

Investigation 4: Australian refugee policy

4.2 1991 Behind barbed wire: Port Hedland immigration detention centre opens

View through the fence at the Port Hedland Detention Centre.

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, June 2002

Read the information in the Defining Moment in Australian history: 1991 Port Hedland detention centre opens and use it to answer these questions.

1. What is a ‘detention centre’?

2. What is the justification for detention centres for migrants whose legal validity is being questioned or investigated?

3. Where were onshore detention centres located?

4. Which offshore detention centres were created under the ‘Pacific solution’?

5. What criticisms were made of the detention centres?

Look back at the Key questions. Which of these questions do you think you can now answer fully? Which need more research?

6. Now complete this sentence:

Exploring further

The main focus of Australia’s mandatory detention policy is to ensure that:

people who arrive without lawful authority do not enter the Australian community until they have satisfactorily completed health, character and security checks and been granted a visa, and
those who do not have authority to be in Australia are available for removal from the country.

Look at the statistics of Australian mandatory detention below.

Migrants held in Australian detention, 1989–2018

Year	Women	Men	Children	Unknown	Total
1989–90	48	122	62	14	246
1990–91	57	126	66	11	260
1991–92	42	119	25	2	188
1992–93	49	197	17	3	266
1993–94	49	161	63	5	278
1994–95	286	500	376	14	1176
1995–96	159	349	184	1	693
1996–97	120	727	73		920
1997–98	393	1359	110	1	1863
1998–99	649	2852	216		3717
1999–00	1025	5627	822	3	7477
2000–01	1390	6053	1344	4	8791
2001–02	1785	6307	1224	5	9321
2002–03	1536	5157	427	4	7124
2003–04	1586	5053	324	1	6964
2004–05	1600	5989	381		7970
2005–06	920	5542	425		6887
2006–07	1101	99	25		1225
2007–08	753	94	11		858
2008–09	615	75	13		703
2009–10	2533	136	216		2885
2010–11	8800	816	1630		11246
2011–12	7929	682	954		9565
2012–13	9858	962	1686		12506
2013–14	10609	2461	2998		16068
2014–15	4177	900	923		6000
2015–16	3174	442	206		3822
2016–17	2712	221	6		2939
2017–18	2,431	152	2		2585

^{Data compiled from Refugee Council of Australia, Statistics on people in detention in Australia, https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/detention-australia-statistics/2/, viewed 14 October 2020 and Janet Phillips and Harriet Spinks, ‘Immigration detention in Australia’, Department of Parliamentary Services, p. 40.}

7. In which years were more than 6000 migrants detained?

8. Why might there have been variations in the numbers of people being held?

Look at this information about mandatory detention and community placements:

Indefinite mandatory detention
People who arrive without a valid visa (by sea or air) must be detained by law without any time limit. As of 26 April 2018, 1369 people were held in closed immigration detention facilities in Australia, 349 of whom had arrived by boat. The average length of detention in closed detention facilities was 434 days, with 461 people (34 per cent of detention population) having been detained for over a year and 264 for more than two years. As of 26 April 2018, seven children were held in closed detention facilities in Australia.

Community placements
Although people without a valid visa are to be detained by law, they can be released at the discretion of the Government into either community detention or the community on a bridging visa E (BVE).

Between October 2010 and 2012, the government increasingly released people into community detention, but since then people have been mainly released on BVEs. As of 26 April 2018, there were 457 people (including 180 children) in community detention and 18,027 people living in the community after the grant of a BVE.

People in community detention can move freely, but must live at an address specified by the Minister for Immigration and need permission to spend a night elsewhere. They are subject to curfews and other supervision arrangements.

BVEs allow people to live in the community while their protection claims are being decided. Most people on these visas have access to Australia’s universal healthcare system, Medicare. In the past, most also received a basic living allowance equivalent to 89 per cent of Centrelink Special Benefit (about $35 a day for a single adult without children). In the past year however, the Government has significantly restricted eligibility criteria for accessing this support and there are further plans to reduce the numbers on support by an estimated 60 per cent.

^{Refugee Council of Australia, Recent changes in Australian refugee policy, https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/recent-changes-australian-refugee-policy/2/, viewed 14 October 2020}

9. What do you think are the strongest arguments for, and the strongest arguments against, mandatory detention in its current form?

Learning module: