21 March 2017

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Janet Phillips,
Social Policy Section

This guide provides current statistics on immigration detainees in Australia (onshore) since 1989–90. It updates the appendices of a more detailed Parliamentary Library research paper, Immigration detention in Australia (2013). The research paper includes an overview of the historical and political context surrounding mandatory immigration detention (introduced by the Keating Government in 1992) and details of Australian Government immigration detention policy responses between 1976 and 2013. For an update on immigration detention policy since 2013 see the Parliamentary Library research paper, A comparison of Coalition and Labor government asylum policies in Australia since 2001 (2017).

For statistics on the number of asylum seekers who have been accommodated (offshore) at regional processing centres in Nauru and PNG see the Parliamentary Library publications, Australia’s offshore processing of asylum seekers in Nauru and PNG: a quick guide to statistics and resources (2016); and The ‘Pacific Solution’ revisited: a statistical guide to the asylum seeker caseloads on Nauru and Manus Island (2012) for details on the asylum cohorts processed offshore during the Howard Government.

Statistics in this guide include:

Table 1: Immigration detainees by year since 1989—the numbers of detainees held both in closed immigration detention facilities (including Christmas Island) and in community detention during the financial year. Detainees may be held for short periods in a single financial year or may be detained for longer periods over multiple financial years.

Table 2: Unaccompanied minors in immigration detention—an ‘unaccompanied minor’ (UAM) in this context is usually a person under the age of 18 years (without a parent or relative 21 years or older) who originally arrived unauthorised by boat seeking asylum. UAMs are mostly detained under community placements or in ‘alternative places of detention’ where appropriate services and support are available.

Table 3: Community detention—for those where a ‘residence determination’ has been made by the Minister enabling them to reside at a specified place in the community, not in an immigration detention centre. Families and UAMs are often detained under these arrangements.

Table 4: Bridging visa (BVE) grants—since November 2011, eligible unauthorised maritime arrivals (referred to in departmental statistics as IMAs) have been released from immigration detention on a Bridging visa E (BVE). These are temporary visas that allow the visa holder to reside in the community while they wait for their immigration status to be resolved.

Table 1: Immigration detainees by year since 1989 (includes community detainees)

Sources:

• 1989–90 to 2007–08: Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), Joint Standing Committee on Migration, Inquiry into Immigration Detention in Australia, Submission 129d, 30 September 2008.
• 2008–09 to 2011–12: DIAC advice provided to the Parliamentary Library on 3 December 2012.
• 2012–13: DIAC, Annual report 2012–13, p. 181; and Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Answers to Questions on Notice, Immigration and Border Protection Portfolio, Supplementary Budget Estimates 2013–14, 19 November 2013, Question SE13/0326.
• 2013–14 to 2016–16: Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) advice provided to the Parliamentary Library on 3 March 2017.

Notes:

• An additional 1637 people were detained in offshore processing centres in Nauru and Manus Island (PNG) between September 2001 and February 2008. Source: C Evans (Minister for Immigration and Citizenship), Last refugees leave Nauru, media release, 8 February 2008.
• The total number of people detained in offshore processing centres in Nauru and Manus Island since the policy was reintroduced by the Gillard Government in September 2012 is not available. However, the number of people accommodated in the centres reached a peak of 2450 in April 2014, including a peak of approximately 200 children. See E Karlsen, Australia’s offshore processing of asylum seekers in Nauru and PNG: a quick guide to statistics and resources, Research paper series, 2016–17, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2016.

Table 2: Unaccompanied minors (UAMs) in immigration detention

Sources:

• 1994–95 to 2007–08: DIAC, Joint Standing Committee on Migration, Inquiry into Immigration Detention in Australia, Submission 129l, 30 September 2008.
• 2008–09 to 2010–11: Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Answers to Questions on Notice, Immigration and Citizenship Portfolio, Budget Estimates 2012–13, 21–22 May 2012, Question BE12/0363.
• 2011–12: DIAC advice provided to the Parliamentary Library on 3 December 2012.
• 2012–13: Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Answers to Questions on Notice, Immigration and Border Protection Portfolio, Supplementary Budget Estimates 2013–14, 19 November 2013, Question SE13/0327.
• 2013–14 to 2014–15: DIBP advice provided to the Parliamentary Library on 16 May 2016. In 2013–14, 131 of the UAMs in immigration detention were unauthorised maritime arrivals (IMAs).
• 2015–16: DIBP advice provided to the Parliamentary Library on 3 March 2017. There were no unauthorised maritime arrival (IMA) unaccompanied minors in immigration detention and less than 5 non-IMA UAMs in 2015–16. 

Table 3: Community detention

Sources:

• 2005–06 to 2007–08: DIAC, Joint Standing Committee on Migration, Inquiry into Immigration Detention in Australia, Submission 129l, 30 September 2008
• 2008–09 to 2010–11: Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Answers to Questions on Notice, Immigration and Citizenship Portfolio, Budget Estimates 2012–13, Answers to Questions on Notice, 21–22 May 2012, Question BE12/401.
• 2011–12: DIAC advice provided to the Parliamentary Library on 3 December 2012.
• *2012–13: the Minister approved 3441 clients (1675 adults and 1766 children) for community detention in 2012–13, but the annual report does not provide statistics for the total, including those already in community detention. Between October 2010 (when community detention was expanded) and June 2013, the Minister approved 7595 clients (4123 adults and 3472 children) for community detention. DIAC, Annual report 2012–13, 2013, p. 183.
• 2013–14 to 2015–16: DIBP advice provided to the Parliamentary Library on 3 March 2017.

Table 4: Bridging visa (BVE) grants to unauthorised maritime arrivals*

Source: DIBP, Illegal maritime arrivals on Bridging E Visa, various years (June 2012 to September 2015), Onshore processing statistics, DIBP website.

*Note: the Commonwealth’s Migration Act 1958 describes asylum seekers arriving unauthorised by boat as ‘unauthorised maritime arrivals’.

Notes:

• As at 30 September 2016, 28,842 IMAs on BVEs remained in the community, (24,496 with a current BVE and 2,346 awaiting grant of a further BVE). The remaining 8,992 IMAs who were granted BVEs had either been granted a substantive visa, departed Australia, returned to immigration detention or are deceased. DIBP, Illegal maritime arrivals on Bridging E Visas, 30 September 2016.
• Since 25 November 2011 successive ministers have used their non-compellable, non-delegable intervention power under section 195A of the Migration Act 1958 to grant bridging visas to some IMAs waiting for a resolution of their immigration status onshore. On 19 July 2013 the Government announced a decision to transfer all unauthorised maritime arrivals to offshore processing centres in PNG and Nauru. On 4 August 2013 an election was announced and during the election campaign the Coalition made a commitment to clear the ‘asylum legacy’ caseload comprised of asylum seekers in the community on BVEs and in immigration detention. For more detail see DIBP, Bridging visas for illegal maritime arrivals, fact sheet, DIBP website; and E Karlsen, J Phillips and H Spinks, Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014, Bills digest, 40 2014–15, Parliamentary Library, Canberra 2014.

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