Villawood immigration detention review makes 10 recommendations
Women in immigration detention at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre continue to face barriers to safety, wellbeing and gender-responsive support, according to the Australian Human Rights Commission.
The commission’s follow-up report, Not just an afterthought revisited: Follow-up inspection of women in immigration detention at Villawood IDC, assessed progress against recommendations from its 2024 inspection and found many of the underlying issues identified in December 2024 remain unresolved.
Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay, who led the follow-up inspection, said: “Our follow-up inspection found that the central problem remains. Women are still being held in a detention system that is overwhelmingly designed around the needs and experiences of men.”
The commission said women detained at Villawood continued to experience prolonged and uncertain detention. It said it heard concerns about staff shortages, workforce capability, food quality, movement restrictions, increased escort requirements, violence and safety incidents, and ongoing difficulties recruiting and retaining suitably experienced staff.
Villawood review finds limited progress
The report also highlights ongoing concerns about mental health, access to healthcare, communication, safety, pathways out of detention and access to information about decisions affecting women’s lives.
The commission said some improvements had been made, including the relocation of women, which reduced some of the serious privacy and safety risks identified earlier. Inspectors also observed strong local leadership and positive efforts by Villawood staff to improve conditions for women in detention.
Even so, the report found limited progress on many previous recommendations, with incomplete or hard-to-assess progress in gender-responsive training, communication, mental health care and guidance for transgender and gender-diverse people in detention.
Finlay said: “But the current conditions are not adequate. Every woman in detention deserves to be treated with dignity, respect and humanity.”
The report makes 10 recommendations focused on implementation gaps and emerging concerns. They include calls for greater transparency on progress since the commission’s 2024 report, gender-responsive training for staff, improved mental health care, stronger communication and status resolution processes, and greater use of alternatives to closed detention.
The Department of Home Affairs accepted eight of the 10 recommendations and partially agreed to recommendations 6 and 10.
