The time asylum seekers spend in Australian detention centres has blown out to a record high under the Turnbull government, leaving men, women and children languishing behind wire, facing an uncertain future.
The latest statistics from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection show that in December, people in onshore immigration detention had been there for an average 445 days. In November, the figure was 446 days.
The average detention period has increased steadily since May last year and is now the longest since the government took power. It is more than double the 200-day wait four years ago under the Labor government.
Of the 1792 people in detention, 91 were children and most were from Iran, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, China, Vietnam and Afghanistan.
The longer periods in detention come at a massive cost to taxpayers. The government's mid-year economic and fiscal outlook last month budgeted an extra $588 million over four years, largely to cover "slower than forecast processing" of asylum seekers in Australia and offshore, leading to higher-than-expected detention centre populations.
This cost comes on top of the existing immigration detention budget, which runs into the billions, and forms part of a $1 billion budget blowout announced last month.
The government has copped domestic and international criticism for its tough regime of mandatory, indefinite detention, which it says deters the dangerous people-smuggling trade.
Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs said it was "concerned" by the long time people spend detained in Australia and at Nauru and Manus Island.
"We know from consistent medical evidence that holding people in detention for prolonged periods can do serious mental harm," she said.
"The commission is concerned about the harsh conditions of detention in the offshore processing centres and safety concerns, particularly for women and children."
Of about 600 people in community detention, 58 per cent had been waiting more than two years for their cases to be resolved.
There has been rising concern over the safety of asylum seekers in detention since detainees with criminal histories flooded the system. Under recent laws, people can have their visas cancelled if they have been sentenced to 12 months or more in prison.
A spokesman for the department said the figures were partly attributable to delays in Parliament approving the Safe Haven Enterprise Visa, which gives asylum seekers a five-year option to live and work in regional areas.
He said the time taken to process onshore asylum seekers depends on factors including "the complexity of the individual case as well as the need to undertake health, identity, character and security checks".
He said the figures were affected by the number of people held in immigration detention, which had declined since early 2013 as people were released into the community.
