Section 261AAMigration Act 1958 (Cth)

Immigration detainees must provide personal identifiers

(1) A non‑citizen who is in immigration detention must (other than in the prescribed circumstances) provide to an authorised officer one or more personal identifiers.

(1A) An authorised officer must not require, for the purposes of subsection (1), a person to provide a personal identifier other than any of the following (including any of the following in digital form):

(a) fingerprints or handprints of the person (including those taken using paper and ink or digital livescanning technologies);

(b) a measurement of the person’s height and weight;

(c) a photograph or other image of the person’s face;

(d) the person’s signature;

(e) any other personal identifier of a type prescribed for the purposes of this paragraph.

Note: Division 13AB sets out further restrictions on the personal identifiers that minors and incapable persons can be required to provide.

(2) The one or more personal identifiers are to be provided by way of one or more identification tests carried out by the authorised officer in accordance with this Division.

Note: Subject to certain restrictions, section 261AE allows reasonable force to be used to carry out identification tests under this Division.

(3) However, this Division does not apply to a non‑citizen who:

(a) is in immigration detention only because he or she is detained under section 192; and

(b) has provided a personal identifier in accordance with a requirement under section 257A.

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation at 26 May 2026. For the latest information on Australian Government law please go to https://www.legislation.gov.au. Verify the current text against the official source before relying on it.

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