policy’ (which required food brought by visitors to be commercially packaged and labelled and factory sealed) was held to be valid. RECOMMENDATION 4: Finding contraband once it is within the centre also has its difficulties. The Migration Act only provides limited search powers. Essentially, centre staff can only conduct a personal search, or a room search based on a reasonable suspicion that a weapon or escape tool has been concealed. They have no power to search for illicit substances or The Government should reform the search powers available to detention centre staff to allow for targeted personal searches and room searches to be conducted where there is reasonable suspicion that drugs are being concealed. other contraband. Following legal advice, staff have additionally been prohibited from conducting matrix searches (random room searches). The Commonwealth Ombudsman has noted that this change has ‘considerably impacted security staff and ABF’s ability to disrupt and detect drug trade and use’.57 The Commission recognises that, for the safety of everyone within the centre, staff should be provided with the authority to exercise a stronger range of search powers: specifically, where there is reasonable suspicion that drugs are being concealed, staff should also be given the authority to conduct targeted personal searches and room searches. In utilising these powers, the Commission’s Human Rights Standards for Immigration Detention stipulate that all searches conducted on people in detention, their accommodation, or personal effects (such as mail) by staff, respect the privacy of those detained and are therefore only conducted for sound security reasons and at reasonable times.58 The Commission also reiterates that, should enhanced search powers be made available to centre staff, any use of these powers should be adequately reported and ‘should be periodically reviewed to identify and rectify any systemic improvements to the use of force in immigration detention’.59 RECOMMENDATION 5: The Department and Serco should review its operational instructions, policy guidance and centre staff training with a particular focus on reducing adverse impacts on the privacy and dignity of people subjected to searches. Although facility staff had intelligence reports and anecdotal evidence to suggest that drug prevalence was high at the centre, there was no way to measure the scale of the problem accurately. Staff lacked the authority to carry out drug testing on people who were detained. In any event, drug testing, whether by blood, urine, or saliva sample, is an inherently intrusive process and inappropriate for the immigration detention environment. Wastewater testing, however, was a viable option because the centre sewerage operated in a closed system. It was not being utilised at the time of our inspection but should be considered as a way to determine the prevalence of drug use within the centre. Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre Inspection Report • 2024 • 29