Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the secrecy of detention processes has led to 11 detainees leaving their premises in Adelaide’s northern suburbs almost a week ago.
South Australian police say those missing are a mix of children and adults and that the youngest is aged 14.
Police say whilst they don’t know where the detainees have gone, they hold no concerns for their safety or welfare.
The Department of Immigration say at least 12 asylum seekers have gone missing from Adelaide over the past two weeks.
“Where an individual is reported missing by the detention service provider, the local South Australian Police station is notified for awareness and in the event individuals come to their attention," a statement from the department said.
“The department’s compliance section will continue to follow any leads regarding the location of the individuals and will re-detain if located.”
Senator Hanson-Young says she is worried the detainees have been missing almost a week “yet the Immigration Minister seems to not really care about where they are or how safe they are.”
She says, as their legal guardian the Minister has a responsibility to keep the children safe.
“It’s a total conflict of interest and it needs to be resolved," she said.
"The government needs to come clean with how much they know about the whereabouts of these children, what they are actually doing to help look after them, and what responsibility the Minister takes for the fact that they are missing in the first place”.
In the statement, the Department of Immigration said, “The Minister has continued the practice of previous Ministers in exercising these responsibilities.”
The individuals, reportedly of Vietnamese and Afghani background, didn't return to houses managed by full time contracted carers, after learning that Immigration officials last week revoked the residence determinations of two Vietnamese teenagers and transferred them to a mainstream detention facility.
“These are young kids. They’ve come to Australia for help; we’re punishing them because of how they arrived and now we’ve got a situation where the person who’s meant to be looking after them is frightening the hell out of them,” Senator Hanson-Young said.
Share
