PEOPLE IN ONSHORE AND OFFSHORE DETENTION
Updated June 2025.
Onshore
1023
People held in onshore immigration detention as at 31 May 2025. Of whom, 159 arrived ‘unlawfully’ by air or boat.
113
People in community detention (designated address, nightly curfews, no security guards).
Source: Department of Home Affairs.
People in locked detention, by classification (n = 1023)
Maritime Arrival: 112
Overstayer: 208
Section 501 Cancellation: 571
Other Visa Cancellation: 57
Air Arrival - Non Immigration Cleared: 41
Illegal fisher: 34
Source: Department of Home Affairs.
10
People in detention who are stateless (approx figure). Their average duration of detention was 1172 days and 2 are on a removal pathway. Note: these figures have not been updated since Dec 2023.
Source: Refugee Council of Australia
190
New Zealanders in onshore immigration detention. Followed by Iranians (69) and Indian (57).
Source: Department of Home Affairs.
8
Children in locked detention. In February 2024 there were six children in locked detention.
37
Children in community detention in Australia (designated address, nightly curfew, no guards).
Source: Department of Home Affairs.
443
Average days spent in immigration detention.
Average days in locked detention onshore
Source: Department of Home Affairs.
175
People have been detained for more than 2 years onshore (18% of total detention population).
Of them, 66 people have been detained for more than 5 years.
Source: Department of Home Affairs.
Offshore
94
People are in Nauru, at 31 August 2024. No updated data available.
Source: Refugee Council of Australia.
64
The approximate number of people still in PNG.
Source: Refugee Council of Australia
1391
People resettled in the US under the United States resettlement deal. Around 1,900 people applied for US resettlement.
188
People resettled in New Zealand under the Australia-New Zealand deal.
Source: Refugee Council of Australia
21
People who were subject to offshore processing have died since 2014, including 7 by known or suspected suicide.
Source: Refugee Council of Australia.
>$12 billion
Spent on offshore processing since 2012. The 23-24 Budget allocates $485,721 to offshore processing arrangements.
Source: Refugee Council of Australia.
1046
People who were transferred offshore are currently in Australia. This includes 838 people who were part of the pre-19 July 2013 group.
Source: Refugee Council of Australia
Statistics are updated when source updates are published. Request an asylum statistic: info@asyluminsight.com