Immigration detention should be time-limited and “only be used as a last resort” if a non-citizen is a risk to the Australian community or of absconding, the Australian Human Rights Commission has said.
The AHRC made that recommendation in a report by the human rights commissioner, Lorraine Finlay, into the Yongah Hill immigration detention centre (YHIDC) in Western Australia, released on Monday.
Finlay wrote that although the “key concerns have been raised repeatedly for many years” there has been “an increase in critical incidents across the whole immigration detention network” as the population shifts from asylum seekers who arrived by boat to people whose visas have been cancelled on character grounds.