How does Australia treat Asylum Seekers?
Australia’s Migration Act 1958 requires that all people who are in Australia without valid documentation must be detained whilst their application for asylum is considered. During 2000/2001, 8401 people were held in immigration detention facilities in Australia, the largest number (1288) in Woomera, a remote region of South Australia. In effect, these people are confined in facilities that resemble medium security prisons before their cases are heard. Length of imprisonment varies from person to person. Over half are detained for longer than three months, whilst some remain in detention for as long as six years. It is not unusual for people to be detained for longer than a year. No journalists are allowed into Australia’s six immigration detention centres. Those people who are allowed in – such as doctors, nurses and lawyers – are often reluctant to speak to the media for fear that it may jeopardise their future access to the detainees, or their future contracts with either DIMA (Depar
