Not just an afterthought revisited: Follow-up inspection of women in immigration detention at Villawood IDC
Two years after the Commission's 2024 inspection, this report examines progress, ongoing concerns and the experience of women at Villawood Immigration Detention
Summary
- found that women in immigration detention continue to face barriers to safety, wellbeing and access to gender-responsive support, despite some improvements since the Commission’s 2024 inspection.
- examines the experiences of women detained at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre and assesses progress against recommendations made in the Commission’s earlier report.
- highlights ongoing concerns about mental health, access to healthcare, communication, safety, pathways out of detention and access to information about decisions affecting women’s lives.
- makes 10 recommendations to improve conditions and outcomes for women in immigration detention. The Department of Home Affairs accepted 8 recommendations and agreed in part with the remaining 2.
Overview
The Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) conducts ongoing monitoring of conditions in detention to help ensure Australia's immigration detention system complies with international human rights standards.
In November 2025, the Commission conducted a follow-up inspection of Villawood Immigration Detention Centre and Miowera Village to assess progress since its 2024 report, Not just an afterthought: The experience of women in immigration detention. The inspection, led by Lorraine Finlay, Human Rights Commissioner, focused on the experience of women detained at Villawood and the implementation of recommendations made in the Commission's earlier report.
The resulting report, Not just an afterthought revisited: Follow-up inspection of women in immigration detention at Villawood IDC, identifies improvements made since the Commission's 2024 inspection, highlights ongoing concerns, and assesses the human rights impacts of current detention arrangements for women.
The report makes 10 recommendations aimed at addressing implementation gaps and emerging issues identified during the follow-up inspection.
Background
In 2024, the Commission published Not just an afterthought: The experience of women in immigration detention, following inspections of all onshore immigration detention facilities housing women. The report found that women were too often an afterthought in an immigration detention system overwhelmingly designed around the needs and experiences of men.
The 2024 report made 31 recommendations to improve the safety, wellbeing and human rights of women in immigration detention. The Department of Home Affairs agreed or partially agreed with 11 recommendations, disagreed with four, noted 15, and indicated that one recommendation required government consideration.
The follow-up inspection focused primarily on Villawood and examined progress in implementing recommendations from the 2024 report. It also considered significant developments across the detention network, including the relocation of women's accommodation at Villawood and the transition to new detention and healthcare service providers.
Around the time of the inspection, there were 70 women in immigration detention in Australia, including 42 women at Villawood. Women represented less than 8% of the overall immigration detention population.
Consistent with its previous findings, the Commission remains of the view that closed immigration detention should only be used where it is necessary and proportionate, with greater consideration given to community-based alternatives and less restrictive options, particularly for women with significant vulnerabilities.
Human rights impacts
The Commission found evidence of genuine progress since the 2024 inspection. Most notably, women are no longer accommodated in the Bryce and Cowan compounds at Villawood, reducing some of the serious privacy and safety concerns identified in the earlier report. The Commission also observed examples of strong local leadership and positive efforts by staff to improve conditions for women in detention.
However, the report found that many of the underlying concerns identified in 2024 remain.
The report concludes that while important improvements have been made, women continue to experience detention within systems, infrastructure and processes that have not been designed with their needs and experiences in mind.
The Commission's follow-up report makes 10 recommendations focused on key implementation gaps and emerging concerns identified during the inspection. The report does not repeat all 31 recommendations made in 2024, which the Commission considers remain relevant.
The Department of Home Affairs has agreed to 8 of the 10 recommendations in the report, and partially agreed to 2 (recommendations 6 and 10).
About the recommendations
Recommendations
The Commission's key recommendations address the following concerns:
- Greater transparency about progress in implementing recommendations from the Commission's 2024 report (Recommendation 1).
- Gender-responsive training for all staff working in immigration detention (Recommendation 2).
- Reviewing guidance relating to transgender and gender-diverse people in detention to better reflect human rights principles and international best practice (Recommendation 3).
- Reviewing accommodation arrangements for women at Villawood, including safety, access to facilities, freedom of movement and separation options (Recommendation 4).
- Ensuring adequate staffing levels and workforce capability across the immigration detention network (Recommendation 5).
- Improving mental health care, continuity of care and access to trauma-informed specialist support (Recommendation 6).
- Strengthening status resolution processes and engagement with women about their immigration status and future pathways (Recommendation 7).
- Greater consideration of community-based alternatives to closed detention and regular review of detention decisions (Recommendation 8).
- Improving communication practices to ensure information is accessible, understandable and responsive to individual needs (Recommendation 9).
- Reviewing policies and practices relating to Hotel Alternative Places of Detention and airport turnaround processes (Recommendation 10).
The Commission welcomes the improvements made since the 2024 inspection and acknowledges the efforts of staff working within a challenging environment. However, it remains concerned that many of the issues identified nearly two years ago remain unresolved and hopes the recommendations in this report will help deliver meaningful and lasting change for women in immigration detention.
Our follow-up inspection found that the central problem remains. Women are still being held in a detention system that is overwhelmingly designed around the needs and experiences of men.