Last children released from Australian detention centres

EVERY refugee child to arrive in Australia by boat is free from detention for the frst time in a decade, the government has revealed. Toddler Moubani (pictured), is one of the last group of children to be released.

Supplied Editorial Fwd: FW: photo of the plaintiff's child

EVERY child locked up in Australian immigration detention centres is free for the first time since Labor’s shameful ­record of 8469 kids being ­incarcerated under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

The last child held in mainland detention was released into the community from a Darwin facility at 7pm on Friday. The final group included a baby, a 17-year-old and a toddler known as Moubani, whose Bangladesh-born mother was one of the lead plaintiffs in a recent High Court challenge.

Government sources confirmed some of the children may have been held in immigration detention for years.

Toddler Moubani, was in the final group of children to be released from detention on Friday.

About 50 kids remain on Nauru in an Australian-funded facility, where the government maintains they can move about the island freely and attend local schools. Some live outside the facility with their families.

The number of kids held in immigration detention at any one time peaked at 1992 in July, 2013, just weeks after Julia Gillard was dumped as prime minister for Kevin Rudd.

Hailing the milestone as one of the most significant achievements of the Operation Sovereign Borders campaign to stop the boats, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has ­revealed the final breakthrough came after months of negotiations with families ­involving the most complex cases.

“It’s almost been a decade since there were no children in detention — 8000 children went through detention when Labor lost control of our borders,’’ Mr Dutton said.

“When I first came into this portfolio I had twin objectives. We wanted to keep ensuring that the boats stopped, but I also wanted to get kids out of detention.

“On Friday night when I got the call, it was something I was proud of.

“This is now one of the most significant achievements of this government.

“Now, we need to make sure that we don’t get new ­arrivals.’’

Some of the children inside Christmas Island Detention Centre.

The last of the children will be removed from detention.

But Mr Dutton warned that Labor’s election policy to abolish temporary protection visas risked a return to the days of children risking their lives to travel to Australia by boat.

“One of the most significant tools is temporary protection visas. Labor’s plan to go back to the Rudd days by abolishing TPVs is just a recipe for new boat arrivals,’’ he said.

“The reality is there are 14,000-plus people in Indonesia waiting to hop on boats ­tomorrow and Labor’s support of the Greens policy to have children and their families cycle out of detention in 30 days would see a bonanza for people smugglers bartering with families to get on boats.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the 13 of the 17 detention centres we have closed would be back in business.”

The final dozen children to be freed involved five from mainland detention centres and seven from Nauru.

Some cases involved children whose parents were deemed a national security risk or suspected people smugglers . Others involved parents who had been offered the chance to leave and declined.

“I think people lose sight of how hard the individual cases are when you get down to the last 10 or 20 cases, all the time making sure that we don’t compromise our national ­security,” Mr Dutton said.

Labor’s Richard Marles said a Shorten government would remain resolute about keeping the deadly route to Australia closed.