Procedural Instruction: Detention Services Manual – Communication and engagement – Access to communication services, dated 4 October 2024

Written by Claude Haiku 5.5 from the extracted text on 20 Oct 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

This Department of Home Affairs Procedural Instruction DM-5275, approved 4 October 2024, sets out how detainees in immigration detention facilities may access communication services, including landline and mobile telephones, internet and email, fax, photocopying, and mail. It draws on the Migration Act 1958 (section 256, which requires "all reasonable facilities" for obtaining legal advice), the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989. Its guiding principles require reasonable access unless there is a serious safety or security concern, and it covers detainee internet terms and conditions, content filtering, arrangements for minors and families, mail screening, handling of prohibited items, and support for detainees receiving adverse news. The excerpt contains no statistics, visa subclass data or cyber assessments, and several sections are redacted under s.22 and s.37 of the FOI Act.