Further caveats have been placed on the immigration minister’s sweeping announcement on Sunday that children are free from detention for the first time in almost a decade, after reports emerged that two children remain locked up on “a removal pathway”.
The office of the minister, Peter Dutton, has confirmed reports by Fairfax Media on Wednesday that two children who did not arrive by boat are still in detention.
The news comes just days after a Guardian Australia report revealed some children had not been moved from a Villawood compound but had had their detention “reclassified”.
On Sunday Dutton declared “a very significant day because the government is very proud of the fact that we’ve been able to get kids out of detention”.
“It’s been almost a decade since there were no children in detention,” Dutton said. “On Friday night, when I got the call, it was something I was proud of.”
One of the two children still in detention is 15. He has been detained alongside his father since November.
In response to the Fairfax report, a spokeswoman for Dutton confirmed the pair were locked up but said they were “on a removal pathway in immigration detention”.
She said all children who had arrived by “unauthorised boat” had been freed, but “there will be on occasions some people with children who transit through immigration detention – this can be due to airport turnarounds or people who are in the final stages of removal from Australia”.
Dutton’s office has been contacted for further comment.
The immigration agent acting for one of the two children labelled Dutton’s statements “appalling” and “misleading”.
“I heard all children have now been released, and I thought, ‘What about my boy?’” Marion Le told Guardian Australia.
“It was misleading, in that, yes, there are still children in closed detention, and really it came down to the fact that people are still – for example in Villawood – still in the detention centre.”
Le said her client had been moved to another detention centre last Thursday which the department deemed more suitable because of his age.
“Then I heard the announcement, and I thought that was amazing, but then realised it didn’t apply to my client. Subsequently I saw the minister had clarified it was only boat arrivals. It was not children who had come in by air.
“He’s now very upset and has rung everyday to ask why he hasn’t been released, because he heard the announcement.”
The report follows revelations on Sunday from a source inside the immigration department, who told Guardian Australia that Dutton’s announcement that morning was “more bureaucratic sleight of hand than emancipation”.
In radio interviews, Dutton had previously confirmed the Guardian’s story on Sunday that some families with children have not been moved from the family compound of Villawood detention centre, but have had their regimen changed, and their detention reclassified as “community detention”.
They have been “released” from detention without being moved.
Restrictions on movement have been eased (children no longer require guards to escort them to school) but families remain behind a steel fence. The alarm on the fence has been disabled and a gate opened but people need permission to stay elsewhere overnight or have overnight visitors.
The family compound at Villawood immigration detention centre is a row of accommodation adjacent to the main detention block, with separate access. Until Friday it was classified as “held detention” but is now “community detention”.
Dutton told ABC radio there was only one family affected by the reclassification of detention status. But sources at Villawood have told Guardian Australia at least three families are affected the change.
