The Australian Human Rights Commission conducts ongoing monitoring of conditions in detention to ensure that Australia’s immigration detention system complies with our obligations under international human rights law.

The Commission conducted inspections, interviews, and consultations in 2023 to monitor the human rights of people detained at the Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre in Northam, Western Australia, approximately 100 kilometres north-east of Perth. The resulting report contains an overview of the key observations and concerns arising from the inspection, and provides an assessment of the human rights impacts.

The report makes 33 recommendations to better protect the human rights of people detained at Yongah Hill, as well as its staff, and the rights of all people in immigration detention. The Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs has provided an official response to the Commission’s recommendations. This response has been published alongside the report, with some information being redacted at the request of the Department for reasons of operational sensitivity.

In its official response to the report, the Australian Department of Home Affairs has agreed or partially agreed with twenty of the recommendations, disagreed with seven, with the remaining six requiring government consideration.