National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention
Learn about asylum seekers' journeys to Australia via people smuggling routes and the humanitarian circumstances driving these perilous migrations.
Children and youth rights
Inquiry
December, 2012
Summary
Although it is not possible to precisely specify all the circumstance that lead people to arrive in Australia through people smuggling routes, there can be no doubt that they undertake perilous journeys which put their lives and that of accompanying family members at risk. Given the very high rates of approval for those who have sought asylum in Australia through these routes, it is reasonable to assume that most detainees have fled their countries for reasons of persecution.