Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Australia should limit the time asylum seekers can be held in detention to 90 days before they are considered for visas, hold detainees for a maximum of one year and stop charging them fees to recoup expenses, a parliamentary committee said.

Security and identity checks should be done within 90 days and detainees would only be kept beyond one year if they present an “unacceptable risk to the community,” the parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Migration said. The government should stop charging asylum seekers A$125.40 ($80) a day for the cost of their detention and cancel all existing debts, some of which exceed A$100,000, according to the committee’s report.

“The impacts of prolonged immigration detention and failures in administration have been too high,” committee chairman Michael Danby said today in an e-mailed statement. The committee also recommends regular health checks.

Australia in 2001 adopted a hard-line stance on asylum seekers, using the Navy to turn away Indonesian fishing boats as they traveled across the Timor Sea laden with about 2,200 refugees. That came ahead of a national election, when John Howard’s Liberal-National coalition won a third term.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Labor Party ousted the coalition in November 2007.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans, who will consider the report, in July said detention centers would only be used as a “last resort” for the “shortest practical time.” Evans said a detainee would be reviewed every three months and no children would be kept in centers.

Australia was holding 279 people in immigration detention as of Nov. 7, according to today’s statement.

Charging detainees for costs was found to be “harsh and without a reasonable rationale,” deputy committee chairman Danna Vale said in the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gemma Daley in Canberra at gdaley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 1, 2008 18:38 EST