About immigration and detention in Australia

What is immigration detention?

All people who arrive or stay in Australia without a valid visa or citizenship are automatically detained, regardless of risk. This includes children, refugees and asylum seekers fleeing persecution or other serious harms.

There are many serious human rights risks associated with immigration detention, including:

• loss of liberty
• arbitrary, prolonged or indefinite detention
• inadequate living conditions and facilities
• mental and physical health deterioration
• lack of access meaningful activities, services and support, including legal advice
• family separation and harmful impacts on children.

The Commission opposes this system which has been in place since 1992. Detention should only be a last resort, be strictly limited and time bound. For example, when someone poses an unacceptable risk to the community and there's no safer or more humane way to manage that risk.

Children should never be detained.

Who are asylum seekers and refugees?

An asylum seeker is a person who has left their home country and is seeking protection in another country but has not yet had their refugee claim determined by an official.

A refugee is a person who has fled their home country because they are at risk of persecution, war or violence. Under the 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee is someone who has a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group, and who cannot return home because of that risk of persecution. They are granted refugee status and are entitled to special rights and protections.

Types of immigration detention

There are several types of immigration facilities:

• Immigration Detention Centres (IDCs): Closed facilities that people are not allowed to leave freely. They accommodate a range of migrants, including people who arrived by sea without a valid visa, individuals whose visas were cancelled on character grounds or who breached their visa conditions, and people refused entry at Australian airports. IDCs are located across Australia and offshore on Christmas Island.
• Immigration Transit Accommodation (ITA): Closed facilities but in a hostel-style environment with less intrusive security measures than an IDC.
• Alternative Places of Detention (APODs): These include facility-based detention settings, such as residential precincts, or locations in the community such as hospitals, hotels, aged care facilities and mental health facilities. They are only meant for short-term use.
  
• Community detention: People housed in the community in a government specified place ('residence determination') while their visa status is resolved.

Number of people in immigration detention

As of 31 August 2025, there were:

• 1005 people in immigration detention (including less than 5 children)
• 108 people living in the community (including 32 children) under specific conditions, instead of being held in closed detention facilities.

And the average period of time for people to be held in detention facilities was 445 days. There are 65 people currently in detention who have been there for more than 5 years.

As of 30 June 2025, there were 8,521 people (including children) who had arrived by boat without a visa living in the community, the majority having been granted a Bridging Visa E.

What is a bridging visa?

The minister can release a person from detention by granting them a ‘bridging visa’ that allows them to live in the community while their visa status is being resolved.

The Commission supports the release of asylum seekers into the community, unless a person is individually assessed as posing an unacceptable risk to the community. We recommend asylum seekers be given access to:

• the right to work
• sufficient income support for people who can’t work
• education such as English language classes and job training
• essential healthcare and counselling
• schooling for children.

Read our FAQs on bridging visas.

Indefinite detention

In 2023 the High Court of Australia ruled that it is unlawful for the Australian government to detain people indefinitely in immigration detention when there is no real prospect of their removal from Australia in the foreseeable future (NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs).

This landmark ruling overturned nearly 2 decades of legal precedent and government practice in Australia.

Following the decision, hundreds of people were released from immigration detention. However, the government has since enacted new laws that raise serious concerns about Australia’s compliance with its international obligations. The government has passed a law stripping refugees and other migrants of their right to procedural fairness when removing them to third countries.

Regional Processing Centre

Australia continues to send asylum seekers intercepted at sea to third countries for offshore processing. This is inconsistent with its obligations under international law. Australia maintains a regional processing centre on the Pacific island of Nauru.

In October 2024, the UN Human Rights Committee ruled that Australia remained responsible for the arbitrary detention of asylum seekers transferred to Nauru in 2014. As of 31 August 2024, there were 94 people in Nauru.

Around 39 men and their families remain in Papua New Guinea, following their previous detention on Manus Island.

What we do

We investigate human rights violations in immigration detention under the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986.

For over 20 years, we've closely monitored how people are treated in immigration detention.

Our work includes:

• looking into complaints from people in detention (including offshore) about possible breaches of their human rights.
• visiting detention centres to assess conditions and treatment firsthand and report our findings and recommendations.
• running national inquiries to examine human rights and asylum issues and hear from affected individuals.
• Setting minimum standards to help protect the rights and ensure the humane treatment of people in detention.

If we find unfair treatment or potential human rights breaches, we will report it and recommend action to the Australian Government.

International law

Australia has agreed to uphold international standards for the treatment of asylum seekers refugees and other migrants, including in immigration detention and those transferred offshore.

Seeking asylum is a human right. Everyone — regardless of how or where they arrive, or whether they hold a visa — has the right to seek protection and should have their claims assessed on the Australian mainland.

Australia must not return anyone to a country where their life or freedom would be at risk. The Refugee Convention and other international treaties protect these fundamental rights.

Learn more about Australia's international obligations and our work on asylum seekers and refugees.