Almost 200 children will be moved out of the Pontville immigration detention centre in Tasmania and into the community, while more than 60 children are being detained on Christmas Island awaiting offshore transfer.
Some of the children from Pontville will be moved to community-based detention in other states, but some will be moved to new group homes being set up for the first time in southern Tasmania.
It is the first time unaccompanied minors will be able to move to group home detention in Tasmania.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke says the children will be moved within the fortnight, leaving 75 still detained at Pontville.
“We’ve got between five and seven group homes that we’re expecting in the next fortnight to open in Hobart, or in and around Hobart,” he said.
“There are some occasions where we have a group of minors where one of them is very young and we try in those circumstances to only have the family members staying there.
“Over the course of this week we believe we’ve got places in the community for 100 and a further 100 the following week.”
The asylum seekers are known as unaccompanied minors because they have arrived by boat without their parents.
Some of the children who have been held at Pontville have self harmed, while others describe the former army barracks as being like a prison.
Children as young as 11 have been held at Pontville.
