Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Inspection Report

Overview

The Australian Human Rights Commission conducts ongoing monitoring of conditions in detention to ensure that Australia’s immigration detention system complies with our obligations under international human rights law.

The Commission conducted inspections, interviews, and consultations in 2023 to monitor the human rights of people detained at the Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre in Northam, Western Australia, approximately 100 kilometres north-east of Perth. The resulting report contains an overview of the key observations and concerns arising from the inspection, and provides an assessment of the human rights impacts.

The report makes 33 recommendations to better protect the human rights of people detained at Yongah Hill, as well as its staff, and the rights of all people in immigration detention. The Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs has provided an official response to the Commission’s recommendations. This response has been published alongside the report, with some information being redacted at the request of the Department for reasons of operational sensitivity. 

Background

In previous reports, the Commission has consistently expressed the view that closed immigration detention should only be used in circumstances where it is strictly necessary to manage unacceptable risks to the community.

Over the last decade, the number of people in closed immigration detention has reduced dramatically. The number of people in detention peaked at more than 10,000 in July 2013. As of 31 December 2023, there were 872 people in detention.  

The Commission acknowledges that the average period in closed detention continued to decline throughout 2023. In January 2023, the average period of detention reached 806 days, which is the highest level ever recorded. By 30 December 2023, the average period had reduced to 625. However, the rate is far high than in comparable jurisdictions such as Canada and the United Kingdom.  

The Commission welcomes both trends, but continues to have ongoing concerns about the health, safety, and overall wellbeing for those who remain in detention. 

Human rights impacts

The Commission’s report raised serious concerns over the safety conditions and the level of care for detainees and staff at the Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre.  

These include: 

• A reported rise in behaviours frequently associated with the prison system, including the trafficking of drugs and other contraband, bullying and standover tactics, and violence. 
• Issues with the infrastructure, including the finding that the two low-security compounds were “no longer fit for purpose”. 
• Lack of access to healthcare, including emergency, out-of-hours, and mental health services. 
• Inadequate access to counselling, rehabilitation and trauma services, and education to minimise substance use. 
• People in detention had very limited access to meaningful programs or activities, fuelling boredom, frustration, and reducing opportunities for rehabilitation and reintegration. 

Recommendations

The Commission’s inspection report provides 33 recommendations to the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs. In its official response to the report, the Department has agreed or partially agreed with 20 of the recommendations, disagreed with seven, with the remaining six requiring Government consideration. 

Many of the Commission’s recommendations are longstanding and are echoed by other oversight bodies, including the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The Commission hopes the Department will take action to implement them. 

The Commission’s key recommendations in this report address the following concerns:

• Replacing the current system of mandatory immigration detention, with closed detention to be used only as a last resort (Recommendation 1) 
• Infrastructure concerns with the centre (Recommendations 2 and 3) 
• Drug infiltration (Recommendations 4 to 7) 
• Meaningful activity (Recommendation 8) 
• Health services, including emergency and out of hours care, and mental health services (Recommendations 9 to 25)   
• Response to COVID-19 (Recommendation 26) 
• Treatment of people in detention, including general security, relationships with staff and use of force (Recommendations 26 to 33).