The two who were originally removed have since fled the Wickham Point facility in Darwin, sparking grave fears for their safety amongst their Adelaide friends and supporters. A large rally has been held and a petition is underway, calling on the federal government to show compassion towards the children and allow them to return to community detention.
Karen Ashford reports.
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The rally opened with an emotional statement from a classmate of the two missing Vietnamese boys.
"Can you believe this ? This happens in the movies only - I see it in movie but not in real life. Now I know it. What have they done wrong? They have done nothing wrong at all."
It was one of many emotional speeches, as students, teachers, friends and refugee advocates responded to the statement that the Immigration Minister can choose to return a community detainee to an immigration facility where he considers it to be in the public interest.
"It is not in the public interest to be spending more taxpayer money illegally detaining kids than they would giving them a safe home, food on the table and basic education. It is in the public interest that our friends are able to have a safe, healthy and happy life. It is in the public interest to treat every member of the public fairly and with dignity and respect, no matter where they came from. There is a hole in the community where these kids once were and we are begging for them to be returned to their friends, peers and loving - obviously - community."
A petition has attracted more than 12,000 signatures; the key message is a plea for the safe return of those missing - two 16 year old Vietnamese boys, and 15 other children and young adults who went into hiding after learning of the boys' re-detention.
The office of the Immigration Minister says the boys were removed from the community because they had no ongoing matters before his department.
The rally heard they were taken because of irregularities with their identification documents.
Several speakers argued there are better ways for the government to manage problems with paperwork than arbitrarily returning people to mainstream detention - an action they say has ripples of fear and distress through the asylum seeker community.
Meredith Edwards is the principal of Woodville High School, where the boys had been students.
"We're desperately, desperately concerned. These are members of our school community - it's just gone out of control. Two young people who 45 minutes before the knock on the door from the Immigration Department were in classes doing exactly what they were supposed to - this did not need to happen. Please understand Minister that these are young people. They've made a mistake by running into the community, please understand that and have a gesture of compassion."
One of the boys' teachers was himself a refugee.
Hazara man Mehdi Bayani says things have changed for the worse since he arrived from Afghanistan and thinks the toxic political environment around asylum seekers could be part of the reason the boys have fled.
"The fear they would have right now, as a result of this process, because when we came over the government was much more accepting of asylum seekers, now days it's just become extremely more restricting and I don't know how we can live with a government that takes children away from their home."
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison's office says he shares public concerns about the whereabouts of those who absconded.
But it didn't clarify whether the Minister could use his discretion to return to children to community detention.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young told the rally Scott Morrison should be stripped of the role of guardian of unaccompanied minors, arguing it conflicts with his role as their detainer.
"Scott Morrison is the legal guardian of these kids (boo) Scott Morrison is the person who is meant to make sure they're okay, make sure they're safe, look after their welfare and act in their best interests. (shame, child abuse) Scott Morrison has failed to look after these children, and it is because of his threats, his department's threats , his government's cruelty, that these children are now missing."
Principal Meredith Edwards is worried there are moves to reclassify the ages of unaccompanied minors to adults, which prevents them attending school.
"We want the Department of immigration and border protection to review its age determination processes, one of the young men who was the top year 10 student at Norwood Morialta gave immigration a birth certificate showing he was under 18. He went to a meeting, came out as 18. I've heard of another girl from another school who said she was 15, she was then told she was 18, someone paid for a bone density test - she's 15 years and six months."
The Minister's office says age determination processes used by the department don't determine a person's exact age but assess whether they are more likely or not to be a child.
It says such assessments are made in the presence of an independent observer, and individuals can seek a review if new information becomes available.
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