The Australian Human Rights Commission will investigate the government’s detention of more than 60 Indonesian children in adult jails for people smuggling, according to their lawyers.

The children were found on board boats destined for Australia and detained for people-smuggling offences between 2008 and 2012.

They were arrested, tried and convicted as adults, often because attempts to verify their age were flawed or insufficient.

In the most well-known case, Ali Jasmin was sentenced to five years in an adult jail in Perth for a minor role in a people-smuggling operation when he was 13. Jasmin was acquitted in the West Australian court of appeal last year, after judges found he should have been sentenced as a child.

The children, represented by the law firm Ken Cush & Associates, joined an existing complaint made by Jasmin to the Australian Human Rights Commission of racial discrimination.

Mark Barrow, principal at Ken Cush, said the imprisonment of the children had caused them severe hardship.

“At last count, there is in excess of 60 young Indonesian men who have advised us that they wish to take part in the inquiry to investigate their treatment in being arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned in Australia as adults, despite being children,” Barrow said. “The damaging consequences for these young men of their treatment in Australia has been permanent and irreparable.”

In many cases, police relied on a flawed wrist x-ray technique to establish the children’s age. After being treated by adults by the courts, some of the children spent long periods in adult jails.

Sam Tierney, solicitor at Ken Cush, said last month that one child was locked up for about 800 days.

“If we were dealing with Australian kids – for example, what happened in the Northern Territory – there would be a royal commission and massive changes afoot,” Tierney told Guardian Australia last month.

The commission is able to inquire, facilitate conciliation and make recommendations. But the commonwealth cannot force the government to pay compensation.

In 2012, the commission published a report on the treatment of minors detained on people-smuggling charges between late 2008 and late 2011.

It found numerous breaches of their rights and disturbing evidence about the flawed handling of their cases.

“It seems likely that some of those acts and practices are best understood in the context of heavy workloads, difficulties of investigation and limited resources,” the report said.

“Others, however, seem best explained by insufficient resilience in the face of political and public pressure to ‘take people smuggling seriously’; a pressure which seems to have contributed to a high level of scepticism about statements made by young crew on the boats carrying asylum seekers to Australia that they were under the age of 18 years.”

Barrow said the commission’s announcement of a new inquiry was welcomed.

“The announcement by the commission ensures that we can continue to seek justice for our clients,” he said. “We look forward to working with the commission and the Australian government authorities to pursue the important work done by the commission as set out in its report, An Age of Uncertainty.”

The commission would not confirm it was inquiring into the cases, saying it was legally prevented from doing so.