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National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention

Children's Rights
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National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention

Please note that this page relates to the inquiry held in 2001-2004. For information about the 2014 National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention, please click here.

 

The Australian Human Rights Commission’s (then known as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission) National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention was announced on 28 November 2001. The Inquiry was conducted throughout 2002. It received over 340 submissions and visited all immigration detention centres in Australia.

Public hearings were conducted in VIC, WA, SA, NSW and QLD. The Inquiry also conducted confidential focus groups with former detainee children and young people in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane.

Archive

A last resort? - Report of the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention was tabled in Parliament on 13 May 2004.

The Inquiry found that children in Australian immigration detention centres had suffered numerous and repeated breaches of their human rights.

In particular, the Inquiry found that Australia’s immigration detention policy failed to protect the mental health of children, failed to provide adequate health care and education and failed to protect unaccompanied children and those with disabilities.

Click on the links below to access: