Vulnerable women housed next to male sex offenders in immigration detention, report finds

Women in immigration detention who have experienced sexual violence are being held metres from male sex offenders, exposing them to harassment and trauma.

In a damning report released on Wednesday, the Australian Human Rights Commission documented women being cat-called and threatened.

The commission was extremely concerned women detainees, many of whom were survivors of male sexual and physical violence, were placed in a building separated by a fence from offenders at the high-security detention facility.

Fifty women are held in immigration detention nationwide, making up less than 6 per cent of the total detainee population, with most of them held in Villawood. Source: AAP / Jeremy Piper

One woman held at Villawood expressed discomfort at the lack of privacy from male detainees. “They are always looking,” she said.

Even commission staff who were inspecting the centre were not spared from being cat-called, a term used to describe a whistle or comment that is almost always sexual.

One woman said: “Sometimes men pay women to beat each other up.”

The unique needs of women in immigration detention were unrecognised and unmet, commissioner Lorraine Finlay said.

“The fact there are fewer women in detention should not mean their human rights are diminished,” she said.

“In too many cases, addressing a woman’s needs appears to have been merely an afterthought from those in charge.

With only three centres to accommodate women, their children and families from other states are unable to visit regularly, which one woman described as gender discrimination.

Staffed mostly by men, the centres are also inhospitable because of how employees disregard the privacy of women detainees.

Thirty-one recommendations were made to the Department of Home Affairs to help improve conditions, such as safer housing, gender-specific training for staff, enhanced access to health care and education, and closed detention to be used as a last resort.

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