In 2005 and 2006 the Australian government referred to the Commonwealth Ombudsman the cases of 247 persons who had been detained by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) and later released on the basis that they could not be detained any longer as an unlawful non-citizen. This office agreed to investigate and report to DIMA about each individual’s case under the Ombudsman’s power to conduct an own motion investigation, as provided for in s 5 of the Ombudsman Act 1976.

This report deals with 10 cases, which have not been publicly reported, where children were taken into immigration detention. The period in which these detentions occurred spanned the years 2002 to 2005. These cases are referred to by way of de-identified case studies throughout the body of this report. There is a brief summary of each case at the end of this report. An individual analysis of each case has been provided to DIMA by the Ombudsman’s office, but these will not be published. The issues relating to immigration administration identified in the individual cases have been incorporated into this consolidated report. The Ombudsman acknowledges that since these events occurred DIMA’s approach to the management of unlawful non-citizen children has changed so that children will only be detained within an immigration detention facility (IDF) as a measure of last resort.