Mapping the use of hotels as Alternative Places of Detention (APODs)

This interactive map documents hotels known to be used for immigration detention across Australia, creating the first coast-to-coast visualisation of a practice that has operated largely in the shadows for two decades.

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Overview

This interactive map, opens in a new window documents hotels known to be used for immigration detention across Australia, creating the first coast-to-coast visualisation of a practice that has operated largely in the shadows for two decades.

Australia first introduced Alternative Places of Detention (APODs) 20 years ago. Since then, hotels – including both major chains and independent operators – have been used as places of detention, including for people who have sought asylum. Yet, there is no publicly available list, opens in a new window of APODs in current or previous use.

APODs were originally conceived as a more sensitive alternative for vulnerable people with needs that immigration detention centres couldn’t accommodate. The policy allows for hospitals, aged care homes and hotels to be used as APODs for people who need medical treatment, are elderly, or have other particular needs. However, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and Australian Human Rights Commission have noted, opens in a new window that hotels have been used as APODs for reasons unrelated to the needs of detainees, including overcrowding in government detention facilities, opens in a new window.

The interactive map, developed by researchers from Macquarie University and UNSW’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, identifies 34 hotels that have been used as APODs and visualises the data, opens in a new window. To the best of our knowledge, the hotels identified on the map are former APODs, rather than sites that are currently in use.

The map shows all known former hotel APODs used across Australia, between December 2002 and December 2022. These are presented alongside the current four Immigration Detention Centres (IDCs) and three Immigration Transit Accommodation (ITAs).

By clicking on each pin on the map, a location of the hotel APOD is shown, along with any known data (eg date of use/closure, number of people detained) and a street-view image of the hotel from Google maps. Links are also provided identifying the original source document from where the data was drawn.

The locations shown on the map provide an indication of the range of hotel APOD sites used across Australia over the last 20 years, while recognising that many more sites remain unknown.
The Department of Home Affairs has typically refused FOI requests to establish the full scope of the APOD network, or have provided heavily redacted materials. In April 2022, the Department acknowledged, opens in a new window that it does not possess a list of places approved for use as APODs.

The data presented in the map is drawn from recent Senate Estimates questions, as well as evidence tendered by the government in pending litigation, opens in a new window challenging the legality of the use of hotels as APODs. It also draws on reports published by the Commonwealth Ombudsman (in its oversight role for places of detention under control of the Commonwealth) and the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the two independent inspectorates with access to APODs. Each entry on the map includes a link to the source material used to identify the location as a hotel APOD.
An APOD is a place of immigration detention approved in writing by the Minister for Immigration or his/her delegate.

APODs were introduced on 2 December 2002 as an alternative option to closed detention facilities. The concept was introduced in a Migration Series Instruction issued by the Department of Immigration (MSI 371). As noted in the MSI, the term APOD is not used or defined in the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). Rather the government purports to approve APODs as places of immigration by relying on the definition of ‘immigration detention’ in s 5(1)(b)(v) of the Act, which includes places approved by the Minister in writing. It should be noted that the validity of relying on the definition section of the Act in this manner to create a power to authorise detention in APODs is the subject of a pending legal challenge, opens in a new window.

The stated purpose of the policy when it was introduced was to facilitate the accommodation of ‘unlawful non-citizen' women and children and other persons with special needs in alternative places of detention. The focus was thus very much on the specific needs of detainees that could not be met in traditional closed detention facilities.

However, as the Commonwealth Ombudsman and Australian Human Rights Commissioner have noted, opens in a new window:

“a practice has also emerged for hotels to be used as APODs to house people where this does not stem from a specific need of the person being held, but for other reasons, such as relieving overcrowding in other immigration detention facilities.”

This shift in the purpose and scale of hotel-based detention was exemplified by the use of hotels to detain the so-called ‘Medevac’ transferees, opens in a new window, many of which were single men, brought to Australia from the offshore processing facilities in Nauru and Manus Island for health treatment between 2019 and 2022.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there were significant concerns, opens in a new window raised about the suitability of hotels to provide sufficient care for detainees, many with complex health care needs. Protests, opens in a new window were held by detainees as well as by refugee rights organisations and local community advocates, drawing attention to sites such as the Park Hotel and Mantra Bell Preston Hotel in Melbourne, as well as the former Kangaroo Point Central Hotel in Brisbane. The brief detention, opens in a new window of Novak Djokovic at the Park Hotel in Melbourne alongside the Medevac transferees in January 2022 again shone the spotlight on the practice.

While it is welcome that many refugees and asylum seekers have been since been released, opens in a new window from hotel detention into the community on bridging visas, other migrants and asylum seekers continue to be detained in hotels, opens in a new window, including those who have had their visas cancelled or refused on character grounds.
In March 2021, the Australian Border Force confirmed in a response to Senator Nick McKim in Senate Estimates that from 1 January 2018 to 31 January 2021, there were 170 APODs used in Australia. The table below breaks down these numbers for each state and territory.

State/Territory Total
New South Wales 27
Victoria 39
Queensland 51
South Australia <20
Western Australia 36
Northern Territory <5
TOTAL 170

New South Wales
Total
27
Victoria
Total
39
Queensland
Total
51
South Australia
Total
<20
Western Australia
Total
36
Northern Territory
Total
<5
TOTAL
Total
170
The Australian Border Force also confirmed that as of 31 January 2021, 56 hotels were designated as APODs.

A recent joint statement, opens in a new window by the Ombudsman and the AHRC stated that as of 31 July 2022 there were 77 hotels designated as APODs under the Migration Act, with 7 in operation at the time.

In each case, the locations of each APOD site were either not provided or were redacted. From these two accounts, it can be determined that more than 20 additional hotel APOD sites were designated for use from January 2021 to July 2022 alone.

The locations shown on the map provide an indication of the scope of hotel APOD sites used across Australia over the last 20 years, while recognising that the location of many more sites remain unknown.

In terms of the number of people held in APODs, the monthly detention statistics released by the Department of Home Affairs only provide the number of persons within APODs by state and territory, not by location or facility, and do not distinguish between types of APODs (ie hospitals, aged care homes, or hotels). As of 31 July 2022, the Department of Home Affairs provided the following breakdown, opens in a new window of the number of people being held in APODs:

State/Territory Men Women Children Total
NSW <20 <5 0 18
Victoria <10 <5 0 <10
QLD 38 8 0 46
South Australia <5 0 0 <5
Western Australia <5 0 0 <5
Northern Territory 0 0 0 0
TOTAL 73 15 0 88

NSW
Men
<20
Women
<5
Children
0
Total
18
Victoria
Men
<10
Women
<5
Children
0
Total
<10
QLD
Men
38
Women
8
Children
0
Total
46
South Australia
Men
<5
Women
0
Children
0
Total
<5
Western Australia
Men
<5
Women
0
Children
0
Total
<5
Northern Territory
Men
0
Women
0
Children
0
Total
0
TOTAL
Men
73
Women
15
Children
0
Total
88
Earlier statistics provided, opens in a new window in Senate Estimates by the Australian Border Force provide some insights into the proportion of people held in hotels as compared to other APODs. As of 31 December 2021, 102 detainees were held in APODs, with less than 87 of these in hotel accommodation.

These figures represent a significant reduction in the number of people held APODs in recent years. For example, as of 31 July 2013, opens in a new window, there were 2,486 people detained in APODs on the Australian mainland (including 1,126 children), and an additional 2,213 men, women and children held at APODs on Christmas Island and Cocos and Keeling Island.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman and Australian Human Rights Commissioner note, opens in a new window that as of 31 July 2022, the average length of time for current individuals in detention in hotels was 69 days, with the longest continuous period of time an individual has been detained in hotel APOD being 634 days.

The location of current hotels used as APODs, as well as the profile and background of the people currently being detained in at those sites is unknown. However, as noted above it appears the number of asylum seekers and refugees held in hotels has decreased significantly in recent times, in part due to the release of the Medevac transferees on bridging visas. Yet, other migrants, refugees and asylum seekers continue to be held in hotel APODs, many for extended periods of time.

State/Territory	Total
New South Wales	27
Victoria	39
Queensland	51
South Australia	<20
Western Australia	36
Northern Territory	<5
TOTAL	170

State/Territory	Men	Women	Total
NSW	<20	<5	18
Victoria	<10	<5	<10
QLD	38	8	46
South Australia	<5	0	<5
Western Australia	<5	0	<5
Northern Territory	0	0	0
TOTAL	73	15	88

Additional Resources on APODs

Project team

Dr Andrew Burridge
Discipline of Geography and Planning
School of Social Sciences
Macquarie University
E: andrew.burridge@mq.edu.au

Associate Professor Daniel Ghezelbash
Deputy Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law
UNSW Sydney
E: d.ghezelbash@unsw.edu.au

The map was produced in collaboration with the Spatial Sciences team at Macquarie University.

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Mapping the use of hotels as Alternative Places of Detention (APODs)

Overview

Additional Resources on APODs

Project team