Immigration dept slammed in rights report THE human rights watchdog has criticised the immigration department for failing to ask ASIO if eight asylum seekers and a small boy were suitable for community detention. A report on their cases by Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs was tabled in federal parliament on Wednesday. Seven of the adults were eligible for refugee status while the eighth was eligible for complementary protection, which means he faces significant harm if returned to his home country. All eight received adverse security assessments from ASIO which recommended against granting them protection visas. Professor Triggs said the department had not asked ASIO for advice about less restrictive detention arrangements. "Information provided by ASIO suggested that community detention assessments could be conducted within 24 hours," she said. Specific conditions, such as a requirement to live at a specified place, curfews, travel restrictions, regular reporting and possibly even electronic monitoring, could have been imposed. Prof Triggs said six of the asylum seekers had been in detention for between 15 and 19 months. The detention of the young boy, only known as Master Eh, as a result of his mother's adverse security assessment was a breach of his human rights. As of February 2013, the boy and his mother were in a Sydney immigration residential housing complex, adjacent to the Villawood Detention Centre. The department has dismissed Prof Triggs' recommendation that it seek advice from ASIO on less restrictive detention options in similar cases.