The Australian Human Rights Commission has released its report [[Wednesday 16 June]] Management of COVID-19 risks in immigration detention.
The commission issued 20 recommendations to the federal government, calling for a major reduction to the populations in immigration detention and for detention facilities on Christmas Island to be shut down.
The report, 18 months in the making, reviews the measures taken by the Department of Home Affairs to mitigate the COVID-19 risks in immigration detention.
Finding that while other countries such as the US, UK and Canada have responded to the pandemic by reducing the number of people in closed detention, Australia's numbers have increased by over 11 per cent in the last year.
