Australia proposes new detention scheme for visa overstayers, sparking rights concerns

Tony Burke, Australia's Immigration Minister, unveiled a scheme to detrench migrants who overstay their visas, planning to keep them in detention for a few weeks to prompt voluntary exit. The approach mirrors pre-2015 policies that once allowed extensive detention of non-criminal overstayers, and it involves adding 100 new compliance officers, releasing 250 existing detention beds, and potentially converting a 100-bed COVID-era quarantine centre near Melbourne Airport.

Critics, including former Human Rights Commission head Gillian Triggs, highlighted historic harms to detained children, noting a 2014 report that documented severe mental and physical damage. The Refugee Council of Australia warned the plan could nearly double one outlet migrant detention population of 1,100. While the 2023 High Court decision bans indefinite detention without a realistic prospect of removal, its applicability to the new policy is uncertain. Humanitarian groups such as the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre condemned the move as brutal and raised concerns about family separations.