The Australian Human Rights Commission released a report on Wednesday detailing the treatment of children in detention centres, which included touching drawings by children who have been held there.

The Forgotten Children report details the long-term impact that detention has on children’s mental state and well-being. The report stated that 85% of detainees indicated their emotional and physical wellbeing had been affected and 34% of children have a mental health disorder.

Currently, 800 children, are being held in closed immigration detention for an indefinite period in Australia and at offshore centres on Christmas Island and Nauru, including 167 babies born in detention within the last 24 months, the report states.

The children held in the centres include 153 babies, 204 preschoolers (between ages 2 and 4), 336 primary school aged children and 196 teenagers, who come from 20 different countries with the majority born in Iran. Almost all the children arrived by boat without a visa. In March 2014, 56 remained unaccompanied.

Australia is the only country in the world that imposes mandatory detention as a first action in response to asylum seekers arriving in the country. While the majority of asylum seekers awaiting processing live in a community setting under strict conditions, a small number are confined to detention centres, according to the report.

Since July 2013, asylum seekers who arrive by boat are taken to a Regional Processing Country for offshore visa processing. They are deemed “unauthorised maritime arrivals” and can only be released if they are granted a visa, returned home or moved to community detention. Almost all the children in detention centres arrived by boat.

The most common reason a refugee fled their home was due to “fear for life or safety,” followed by “escaping persecution by government.” A 17-year-old unaccompanied minor who is detained at Christmas Island detention centre told the commission: “I feel like I’m in jail, no one here to help us. It’s just me and God.”

Another unaccompanied child said: “My father and brother were killed. I saw death on the way here. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to be.”

Here are some of the drawings from children being held in Australian detention centres:

The report shows detention centres are dangerous for children, that their learning is stunted and their mental and physical health is affected drastically. The detaining of children for an indefinite amount of time opposes international human rights law, which states the detention of a child must only be a last resort, while under Australian law there is no prescribed amount of time a child can be held.

“There is minimal risk to the community from having a more humane, less restrictive form of detention while the refugee status of asylum seekers is assessed,” the report stated.

The government hit back at the claims of poor treatment of children, saying by discouraging boat arrivals, fewer people are now dying at sea. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told the ABC the current government has “made significant efforts to release whatever families we can.”

Dutton added that the government sometimes offered families with a high-risk male the option to have the woman and children placed in the community, but the offer was often rejected. Some children have faced detainment of longer than 27 months due to having a parent who is considered a risk by Australia’s spy agency.

Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Fairfax radio he felt no guilt over the report’s findings — in fact, “none whatsoever.”

“The most compassionate thing you can do is stop the boats … where was the Human Rights Commission when hundreds of people were drowning at sea?” Abbott said, referring to the previous Labor government. The report covers nine months of Labor government and six months of the current Liberal-National government.

He added that the Human Rights Commission should instead send a congratulatory note to former Liberal Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, saying, “Well done, mate.”

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