Australia holding immigration detainees for average of almost two years, freedom of information request reveals

At end of April there were 1,414 people in detention centres, 61% due to visa cancellations

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Australia has an intractable" caseload of people held in immigration detention for long periods largely due to visa cancellations on character grounds.

That was the advice of the home affairs department to the new immigration minister, Andrew Giles, in a brief revealing the average time spent in detention is 726 days.