Jeddah – Yasmine El Tohamy – LONDON: Australia’s immigration detention policy has been slammed by Human Rights Watch, which has used the Novak Djokovic saga to point out that the country holds asylum seekers for an average of 689 days.

The expose comes one month after the Serbian tennis player was held in a detention hotel ahead of the Australian Open championships. 

He was detained for five days in a state-run facility in Melbourne after his visa to challenge for the Australian Open title was retracted because he had not been vaccinated against COVID-19. 

But unlike Djokovic’s brief stay, some detainees are kept in the facility for hundreds of days. 

One Iranian refugee, 24-year-old Mehdi Ali, said: “The residents of this building are desperately in need of freedom.”

Ali belongs to the persecuted Ahwazi Arab minority in Iran, and has been held in the same building for two years with no release date.

Arriving in Australia when he was 15, he has been held by immigration authorities for nine years. 

He said his experience in the hotel was a “real-life nightmare,” and several detainees had suicidal tendencies after years of being held. 

HRW found the average detention duration from a government report in September. It is believed to be the longest average detention rate for a Western nation. 

Australia has a mandatory detention system for those who arrive by boat, with 1,459 people currently detained in the system. There are no limits on how long a person can be held. 

HRW found records of 117 people who had been held for at least five years. Eight people had been kept in detention for over a decade. 

“These statistics shows how completely alone Australia is among like-minded countries, in terms of the indefinite detention of asylum seekers and refugees for years on end,” researcher Sophie McNeill told the BBC.

“Under international law, immigration detention should not be used as punishment, but rather should be an exceptional measure of last resort to carry out a legitimate aim.”

Australia’s rejection of people fleeing persecution violates the rules of the international refugee treaties that it has signed up to.