People in detention in australia & Offshore detention
People in detention in Australia
There are 2,052 people in immigration detention in Australia.
378 of these are people who arrived in Australia by sea to seek asylum. Many of the others are also seeking asylum – the government doesn’t disclose that number.
The government has 1270 people (including several children) locked up in detention facilities. The other 782 people are in “Community Detention,” which means that they live in the community, but they have curfews and reporting requirements.
Nearly half (43%) of the people who are locked up in detention have been there for over a year. 22% have been there for over 2 years.
Offshore Detention
People being processed in Papua New Guinea and Nauru
The Australian government has sent 4,177 people seeking asylum to PNG (Papua New Guinea) and Nauru since offshore processing began in 2012.
Today, there are approximately 810 people still being processed in these countries – about 450 in PNG and 360 in Nauru.
All of the people being held in PNG are men. In Nauru, there is a mix of men and women. The last children were removed from Nauru earlier this year.
78% of the people processed on Nauru and PNG have had their refugee status recognised (as of 2017, when the government stopped publishing the decisions). Even though they are recognised as refugees, many of them continue to be held in overseas detention.
People transferred to the US
In 2016, Australia and the US reached a deal that would allow people being held on Papua New Guinea and Nauru to be resettled in the US. So far, about 559 people, including 27 children, have been resettled to the US.
The deal allowed for 1,250 people to be resettled, but the US may not take the full number. Even if they DO take the full 1,250, that would leave over 100 people in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
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