The Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce has called on the federal government to stop sending unaccompanied child asylum seekers to Nauru and has warned that children are being placed at serious risk within Australia’s detention network, in a report released on Wednesday.



The report, titled Protecting the Lonely Children, argues the government is failing to care for the “especially vulnerable cohort” of unaccompanied minors and makes a number of recommendations to improve conditions and their legal circumstances.

It says the immigration minister, who is the legal guardian of unaccompanied minors in detention centres, is the “guardian, judge and jailer” in a role that has “glaring conflicts of interest”.

“The minister for immigration should cease to be the legal guardian of unaccompanied asylum-seeker and refugee children,” the report says.

“An independent guardian, beholden to neither the minister nor their department, should be appointed to ensure unaccompanied minors are protected and cared for in accordance with all Australian child welfare laws and relevant international treaty obligation.”

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said in response to the concerns raised about guardianship: “The department has been working closely with the government of Nauru and associated service providers to consider the arrangements that need to be in place to support the transfer of unaccompanied minors, including in relation to access to health and educational services.”

He said four asylum seekers who were considered “more likely than not” to be minors had been transferred from Manus Island, which is only for single adult males.

Morrison added that a further three asylum seekers found to be minors had been removed from Manus Island following a review of the department’s age assessment procedures.

“This policy change resulted in the three transferees, who were previously considered to be adults, having their dates of birth reviewed which [resulted] in them being considered to be under the age of 18,” he said.

The Greens have introduced a bill that seeks to remove the minister from his guardianship role.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said: “I welcome this report from the church’s taskforce and urge the government to consider the troubling details within.

“The Greens’ bill, which would see the minister stripped of his guardianship of unaccompanied children, has been introduced into the Senate.

“I call on all of my parliamentary colleagues who are concerned about the fate of these children to vote in support of the bill.”

The church groups report also called for the establishment of a national framework to care for asylum-seeker children and said children were given limited assistance in the age determination process and in their asylum claims more generally.

It was also highly critical of sending children offshore to the detention centre on Nauru. It said: “This is state-sanctioned child abuse which the taskforce believes will warrant a royal commission. There is no sustainable resettlement possible in Nauru. It is a painful façade offering no real solution.”

Guardian Australia has previously reported on allegations a child asylum seeker was sexually assaulted by a member of Nauru detention centre staff. Serious health concerns have also been raised, with limited screening of communicable diseases in children.

The review also called on the government to provide more support to unaccompanied children in lodging their asylum claims, and to end the practice of “enhanced screening”, a fast-track method for determining whether a person has a claim.

“Independently review the claims process to ensure children’s claims are processed in a fair, transparent and timely manner, which protects the child, and is in accordance with child’s rights frameworks and international treaty obligations,” it said.