MORE than 1200 children have been freed from detention centres since Operation Sovereign Borders was established, reducing, by 95 per cent, the number of juveniles locked up.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal there were 1342 children in detention when the Coalition government launched the controversial operation — but that the vast majority have now been released with just 79 remaining under lock and key.

The number of children in detention peaked at 1992 under Labor’s soft boats policy in July 2013, as more than 800 illegal boats arrived with 50,000 asylum seekers on board.

Seventy-two of the remaining children will be moved to Nauru within weeks where the centre is now an open facility and access is granted to the entire island.

The remaining seven are still awaiting their parents to receive security clearances.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said reducing the number of children in detention had been among the government’s core goals.

“It has been the main priority of this government and my personal priority to remove as many children from detention as possible,’’ he said.

Mr Dutton said the government would continue to work towards freeing all children from detention.

“The majority of remaining children in detention are due to return to Nauru and the other few remaining cases are the most difficult where there may be a security issue with the parent for example,’’ he said.

Operation Sovereign Borders and the government’s turnback policy has stopped the flow of illegal arrivals into Australia. In recent weeks, the immigration minister has been slammed by refugee groups and Labor over slow processing times for asylum seekers.

People in onshore immigration detention centres had been locked up for 445 days on average — double the 200-day wait under Labor.

Mr Dutton said the government was left to deal with a whopping legacy caseload left over from the previous government.

“Labor likes to forget that they ­allowed 8000 children to be smuggled on leaky boats under their watch,’’ he said.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/operation-sovereign-borders-most-of-la...

cods wrote on Jan 18^th, 2016 at 7:49am:


Gillian Triggs, how do you like that egg on your face?

"People in onshore immigration detention centres had been locked up for 445 days on average — double the 200-day wait under Labor."

Disgusting.

"People in onshore immigration detention centres had been locked up for 445 days on average — double the 200-day wait under Labor."

Typical.

greggerypeccary wrote on Jan 18^th, 2016 at 8:46am:



better off than DEAD

so 5% of children are still in detention after all this time? I wonder if they would take so long if it were their kids.

double plus good wrote on Jan 18^th, 2016 at 8:43am:


Yep.  Absolutely disgusting.

"People in onshore immigration detention centres had been locked up for 445 days on average — double the 200-day wait under Labor."

Also disgusting.

cods wrote on Jan 18^th, 2016 at 9:28am:


"child abuse is rife in Australian detention centres"

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/stories/s212618.htm

"Detention centre child sex abuse claims number in dozens"

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/detention-centre-child-sex...