Australian Detention Policy: Types, History, and Issues

Australian Detention Policy 0
Australi
an
Detenti
on
Policy
July 18
2019

Australian Detention Policy 1
Introduction
The report summarizes about the detention policies which are mandatory in Australia.
Every country has set some rules for the unauthorized activity performed by people. To make
them imprison some policies are introduced by the government so that these activity can be
controlled. Detention policies are the avoided by some countries where as in Australia it is the
mandatory policies for all non-citizen people who entered Australia or living over there unlawful
ways. In this report very amendment which were implemented in the policies by all the
government which rule over there. The aim of this report is to study all the key factors or reasons
due to which these policies are mandatory in Australia.
Mandatory Detention
Compulsory practices which are performed to detaining the people who are willing to the
political asylum. The term asylum is used here for the people who enter or arrive the country
without appropriate authority through boat, flights. It can be simply explained it is the process in
which the government or the immigration authority finds the people who arrive in the country
without having Visa and imprisoned them. This policy is applied to many groups in which
people who are living in the country even after expiry of the Visa or by breaching conditions of
Visa are included (Balint, 2019). There are several types of detention policies which are
implemented by the government are described below:
i. Immigration Detention
ii. Remand (Detention)
iii. School Detention
iv. Indefinite detention
Implementation
Keating Government: Before announcement of the Migration Legislation Amendment
Act 1982 it was examined that during the time period of November 1989 to January 1994 there
were approximately 735 people through 18 boats entered Australia in an unauthorized ways.

Australian Detention Policy 2
Keating government implemented the Migration Amendment act 1992 which starts to prevent
these unauthorized entries. People who were not citizen of Australia and living without valid visa
considered as unlawful which lead them for the detention, according to the act which was
proposed the limit of detention was set to 273 days (Lindley, 2019). Government of Australia
start getting criticism when the Tampa freighter in which 438 people from Afghan which was
rescued at sea it was blocked for the landing at the shore of Australia. The government of
Australia give their explanation that either Norway or Indonesia were responsible for the those
refugees. The Tampa was intervened by military of Australia when it entered to boundaries of
Australian shore without their permission.
Howard Government: When Keating government was get defeated from the Liberal
national party led by John Howard in the federal election. Government than passed some
temporary protection visa for the people who were considered or get accept as refugees. There
were some policies passed under the Howard government get opposed by many human rights
group. When the tenure of government was going to over detention facilities of Australia get
empty also the practices of child detention was ended (Peterie, 2019).
Immigration detention for Children: In Australia the mandatory detention policy for
children was practiced from period of 1999-2000 which was inquired by the human right
commissioner Dr. Sev Ozdowski OAM. Children who arrived without valid visa were also put
under detention with their parents and there were no any chances on which their case get argued
by any tribunal or court. In the inquiry which was conducted by the Human Rights and Equal
Opportunity Commission (HREOC) they conclude a report that during the period of 1999 to June
2003 there were 2184 children were kept under detention in Australia. Most of them were belong
to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan and they arrive Australia alone, 98% of the Iraqi children were
considered as refugee (den Otter, Wenzel, McGrath, Osorio, & Drožđek, 2019).
History of detention policy (Evaluation)
The detention policy was implemented in Australia by Keating Government under the
Act Migration Reform 1992. The act was get active on 1st September 1994 as an interim
measure. The successive Howard government put some amendment in the policy entitled as
Pacific solution; this policy was introduced to control the unauthorized arrivals in the country.