Australia held one of its own citizens in immigration detention for 945 days

Days in unlawful detention

945 days

The Home Affairs department unlawfully detained a person known as Mx B for 945 days, about two and a half years, after misreading Australia's citizenship laws, a Commonwealth Ombudsman report says.

Mx B was born in Australia in 1989 to New Zealand parents, left briefly and returned in 1992. They should have become a citizen automatically at age 10, but poor record keeping meant it never happened.

Where it went wrong

• 2018: wrongly found not a citizen
• 2019: same finding, case law ignored
• 2022: detained after leaving prison
• 2024: new information not considered

The department wrongly found three times, in 2018, 2019 and 2024, that Mx B was not a citizen, and held them in immigration detention after a prison sentence ended in 2022. They were released in April 2025, and a fourth assessment found they were a citizen.

Immigration detention, Jul 2024 to Jun 2025

30 held unlawfully 4 217 held lawfully

The report found 30 of the 4,247 people placed in immigration detention between July 2024 and June 2025 were held unlawfully. It recommends that Home Affairs apologize to them.