Australian Human Rights Commission Australia and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Shadow report to the CERD Committee – 8 July 2010 143. The Commission welcomes values 3 to 7, and expressed the need for them to be translated into policy, practice and legislative change as soon as possible. Since then, some positive policy changes have been introduced. However, there remains significant progress to be made. In particular, the values have not been implemented in legislation. In June 2009 the Australian Government introduced the Migration Amendment (Immigration Detention Reform) Bill 2009 (Cth) into Parliament. The Commission welcomed the Bill as a positive step, but expressed concern that it did not go far enough towards implementing the New Directions, including some of the values. 113 As of May 2010, the Bill had not been passed. 144. The Commission has consistently called for the repeal of the mandatory detention system because it leads to breaches of Australia’s international human rights obligations. The Commission has recommended that: • the Migration Act be amended so that immigration detention occurs only when necessary. This should be the exception, not the norm. It should be for a minimal period, be reasonable and be a proportionate means of achieving at least one of the aims outlined in international law. These limited grounds for detention should be clearly prescribed in the Migration Act. • the Migration Act should be amended so that the decision to detain a person is subject to prompt review by a court, in accordance with international law • the Migration Act should be amended to include periodic independent reviews of the ongoing need to detain an individual, and a maximum time limit for detention. 114 8.3 Detainee numbers, nationalities and length of detention 145. As reflected in the Australian Government report to the Committee, until 2008 there had been a decline in the number of people in immigration detention. 115 The Commission welcomed this. 116 However, since that time the number of detainees has increased significantly. As of 2 April 2010, there were 2686 people in immigration detention, including 272 children. 117 146. The nationalities of these people were listed as follows: 1059 from Afghanistan; 660 from Sri Lanka; 209 from Iraq; 123 from Indonesia; 120 from the People’s Republic of China; 116 from Iran; 36 from Burma; 15 from Vietnam; 14 from the Palestinian Authority; 12 from Nigeria; and 322 other nationalities. 118 147. There has been some progress made by the current Australian Government in reducing the length of time people spend in immigration detention – particularly the very long-term cases. In June 2008, there were 52 people who had been detained for more than two years. 119 As of April 2010, this had decreased to 18 people. 120 However, the Commission remains concerned that many people still spend prolonged periods in detention. 40