The Queensland police service has refused to say whether it is acting lawfully by continuing to detain dozens of children in state watch houses, after the court-ordered transfer of three young people last week.
The supreme court ruled on Friday that the three children must be moved urgently from watch houses to youth detention facilities, after the Queensland government conceded they were being held unlawfully.
Advocates claim the decision would probably mean hundreds of children – including some still in state watch houses – have been improperly detained in police custody, alongside adults, for extended periods.
Children have been held for up to 40 days in watch houses, designed to hold people for less than 48 hours, because youth detention centres are full. The situation has prompted serious human rights concerns.
Guardian Australia asked the QPS after the court decision whether it had taken any action to review whether children who remain in police watch houses were potentially affected, or being held without a lawful basis.
Police were also asked whether the service was confident it was fully compliant with the law, in relation to the ongoing detention of those children.
In a brief response sent on Saturday, the QPS did not address either question.
The Cairns-based youth organisation, Youth Empowered Towards Independence, lodged a court action on Wednesday last week, seeking the transfer of several children being held on remand in state watch houses.
The action began as a potential test case regarding the Queensland government’s practice of keeping children in police holding cells, alongside adults, for extended periods.
But the case was won without a substantive hearing on Friday, when the Queensland government conceded to orders transferring three children – those who remained in police custody – to detention centres.
Under the Queensland Youth Justice Act, a court that refuses bail to a young person must make a specific order that effectively remands the child into the custody of police, to be transferred to youth justice “as soon as practicable”.
The government justifies extended watch house detention on the basis it is not “practicable” to transfer children when there is no available place in a detention centre.
The Queensland solicitor general, Gim del Villar KC, told the supreme court he had not been able to locate any order specifically authorising any of the children to be temporarily remanded in police custody.
Lawyers who work regularly in the Queensland children’s court have told Guardian Australia the vast majority of children remanded are not subject to a specific order that places them into the temporary custody of police. They estimate that hundreds of children would likely have been held in watch houses in those circumstances.
Bridget Burton, the director of the human rights and civil law practice at the Caxton Legal Centre, said the department of youth justice had been “overseeing the unlawful detention of these three children and potentially many other children over a substantial period of time”.
“This is a serious breach of the human rights of children, and frankly quite shocking,” Burton said.
“The detention of children is extremely serious and must occur only according to law.”
On Friday, an email was sent to magistrates that sought to address the issue in relation to the remand orders, which prompted the state’s concession in the case.
Police sent a statement to Guardian Australia on Saturday that did not acknowledge or address concerns that children might remain in watch houses unlawfully.
“We are working with the Department of Youth Justice, Employment, Small Business and Training to minimise the time young people spend in police watch houses before being transferred to a youth detention centre,” the statement said.
“Generally, where a young person is remanded into custody by the court, that child may spend a period of time in QPS custody while waiting for a position within a youth detention centre.
“Once QPS is advised of an available position, the young person is conveyed to the centre as soon as possible.”
