Australian immigration detainees’ lives controlled by secret rating system developed by Serco

Nauroze Anees spent more than 1,000 days in immigration detention in Australia but, for most of that time, he had no idea he was the subject of a SRAT. Photograph: Khaula Jamil/The Guardian

The lives of detainees in Australia’s immigration detention centres are controlled by a secret rating system that is opaque and often riddled with errors, a Guardian investigation has found.

Developed by Serco, the company tasked with running Australia’s immigration detention network, the Security Risk Assessment Tool – or SRAT – is meant to determine whether someone is low, medium, high or extreme risk for factors such as escape or violence.