Asylum seekers in Australian detention centres are held for an average of more than nine months, far longer than international standards.

The average time asylum seekers are detained is 275 days – almost four times longer than the average 72 days asylum seekers were spending in detention in July last year.
President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, said the length of detention was "completely unjustified" and was "being used as a form of deterrence" to asylum seekers.
"Children and their parents are being used as a form deterrence.": Gillian Triggs.
"Children and their parents are being used as a form deterrence.": Gillian Triggs. Photo: Tara Ward
"It’s very common to hold people in detention to do security, identity and health checks. But anything longer than one or two months starts to look like arbitrary detention," she said.
The Australian average far exceeds that of other countries. In the US, the average detention period is 30 days, in Canada it is 25 days and in France 10 days, according tothe Geneva-based Global Detention Project.