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Australia’s immigration minister has strongly defended his government’s policy of detaining asylum-seeker children in camps, saying it is “effective” in deterring others from boarding boats destined for its shores.
Scott Morrison, who was fronting an Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry into children in detention, said yesterday his country’s tough immigration policies were helping prevent asylum-seekers from dying during the perilous boat journey from Asia.

“I saw too many children die in the sea not to pursue the policies I am pursuing,” he said during a hearing that saw some heated exchanges over the camps’conditions.

“The voiceless in this debate are the ones that are at the bottom of the ocean and who are in camps all around the world which I am now very pleased are getting places under our immigration programme.”

Earlier in the week, the minister said he expected to release some 150 children aged under 10 from mainland detention centres, as well as a “large number” of the 1,547 in community detention in Australia.

But children held on offshore facilities on Christmas Island and Nauru who arrived after July 19, 2013 are excluded under Australia’s tough immigration policy.

Under the policy, the asylum-seekers are prevented from being resettled in Australia regardless of whether they are judged to be genuine refugees.

They are instead kept at the offshore centres for processing or resettlement. Counsel assisting the inquiry, Naomi Sharp, said monthly data showed the average length of time children were detained in camps had tripled to 349 days since the current conservative government came to power in September.

Morrison blamed the opposition Labour Party and Greens for delays in processing refugee claims for the length of detention. — Al Jazeera