Australian Human Rights Commission Submission to UN Committee Against Torture, 17 October 2014 Migration Act and for making decisions about granting visas. Given these multiples roles, it is difficult for the Minister, or his delegate, to make the best interests of the child the primary consideration when making decisions concerning unaccompanied minors. 142. The Commission has repeatedly recommended that an independent guardian be appointed for all unaccompanied minors in immigration detention, to ensure that their rights are protected. In 2012 the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Australia’s Immigration Detention Network also recommended that the legal guardianship of unaccompanied minors in immigration detention be transferred from the Minister. Refugees with adverse security assessments 143. The Commission has for several years raised concerns about people who have been found to be refugees but who remain in immigration detention facilities in Australia because they have been denied a protection visa as a result of receiving an adverse security assessment from the ASIO. 144. Such refugees cannot be returned to their country of origin as they have been found to have a well-founded fear of persecution. Australian Government policy requires that they remain in immigration detention facilities unless a third country agrees to resettle them. Third country resettlement appears not to be a realistic solution and therefore individuals, including children, are effectively facing a life sentence in detention, this is despite having not been charged with or convicted of any crime. 145. In October 2012 the Australian Government appointed an Independent Reviewer for Adverse Security Assessments. The Independent Reviewer has recommended in ten cases that ASIO’s adverse assessment be maintained and has seen ASIO overturn adverse security assessments in two cases. 146. One of these cases involved a family of five who had spent over four years in detention as a result of receiving an adverse security assessment. The parents and their three young children (one of whom was born in detention) were released into the community in June 2013 as a result of the Independent Reviewer’s recommendation. No reasons were provided as to why the assessment that led to their prolonged detention was overturned. 147. These decisions highlight the need for greater transparency and accountability in the application of ASIO security assessments to asylum seekers and refugees. The Commission strongly supports independent review of adverse security assessments. 148. Refugees with adverse security assessments and their children remain indefinitely detained in closed immigration detention facilities. Some adults are detained in high security immigration detention centres such as the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre; extremely restrictive environments in which to hold people who could be facing a very long period in detention. 149. In August 2013 the UN Human Rights Committee found that the indefinite detention of a group of 46 refugees with adverse assessments was inflicting 39