Key Points
- The Home Office said changing demographics in immigration detention centers had led to an increase in drug-related incidents and violence.
- Home Secretary Tony Burke said around 90 per cent of detainees had criminal convictions.
- New legislation will strengthen the centers’ powers to search and seize “prohibited and controlled objects”.
Staff at The centers could benefit from stronger research powers under new federal legislation aimed at combating a “prison-like culture.”
Home Secretary Tony Burke said demographic changes in centers in recent years meant that around 90 percent of had criminal convictions.
Among those arrested are members of outlaw motorcycle gangs who bring “a greater degree of volatility and organized crime into the system,” including an increase in drug-related incidents and violence, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
In response, Burke is introducing legislation to strengthen the centers’ powers to search and seize “prohibited and controlled items” without a warrant and with the use of detector dogs within the centers.
The classification of objects in the possession of people in the centers will also be clarified.
The laws will say that an item that is illegal to possess is a “prohibited thing”, such as an illegal drug, while the minister can define an item as a “controlled thing”, which could include alcohol. contraband, Internet-enabled devices and SIM cards.
There will also be guarantees for people present in the centers, specifies the minister.
“The legislation will stipulate that inmates must retain the ability to communicate with family members and legal representation where their mobile device is seized,” Burke said Saturday.
The policy announcement follows an Australian Human Rights Commission report released in April, which found serious concerns about security and care at Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre, Northam, east of Perth.
Inspectors reported an increase in behaviors commonly associated with the prison system, including the trafficking of drugs and other contraband, surveillance tactics and violence.
The commission made 33 recommendations to the Department of Home Affairs aimed at improving conditions in all immigration detention centers under Australian jurisdiction.
Home Affairs accepted or partially accepted 20 of the recommendations and disagreed with seven, with the remaining six requiring government review.
The inspection, which took place in May 2023, came six months before a landmark High Court ruling that declared indefinite immigration detention illegal and unconstitutional.
Overseas asylum seekers spend an average of 565 days in immigration detention, significantly more than in countries like Canada (30 days) and the United States (48 days).
