The eight remaining asylum seekers at the Park Hotel in Melbourne have now been released from detention, refugee advocacy groups say.
Twelve others were also released on Thursday — three from the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation, six from the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation and three from centres in Perth and Adelaide.
It is understood they will be granted bridging visas to stay in Australia temporarily.
Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Advocacy Coalition said all of the detainees were recognised as refugees when they were on Nauru and Manus Island. Australian authorities have not yet confirmed whether this is the case.
He said those released on Thursday were "ecstatic".
"After the releases last Friday, the people that were left inside were anxious, puzzled, distraught to understand why they were still being detained."
He said there were only 10 refugees left in detention across Australia, and he predicted they could be released soon.
The Park Hotel was used to detain asylum seekers brought to Australia from offshore detention under now-repealed Medevac laws.
"I do think that we have seen a group of people who have been very blatantly and quite deliberately victimised because they were brought here against the government's wishes," Mr Rintoul said.
Tennis star Novak Djokovic was briefly held in the Park Hotel alongside the refugees after he entered the country to compete in the Australian Open without being vaccinated against COVID-19.
When the deal was announced, the Australian government reiterated its policy that those who arrived by boat would never be settled in Australia.
Maurice Blackburn lawyer Jennifer Kanis, who represents some of the refugees let out of the Park Hotel on Thursday, said it was not clear why her clients were suddenly released.
She said that while it was a relief that her clients were released, they still faced the uncertainty of not knowing where they would be permanently resettled.
"We're not cheering the government for what they've done today," Ms Kanis said.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said on top of those freed today, 230 refugees had been released from detention centres across the country since December 2020.
Government authorities have not explained why they have been progressively releasing refugees. Last year, then-home affairs minister Peter Dutton said it was due to the cost of detention.
The Australian Border Force and Immigration Minister Alex Hawke have not responded to requests for comment.
Foster denounces 'infrastructure of harm'
Human rights activist and former Socceroo Craig Foster declared Thursday a symbolic day following the release of detainees.
"To see that Park Hotel close today and the last refugee walk free is a very, very important moment," Mr Foster told RN Drive.
"But every Australian should recognise that this is just the first step on a very long journey to recovery for people who we have very severely harmed."
He criticised the delay in releasing the asylum seekers and claimed the government had used those detained as "political capital."
Foster pointed towards Novak Djokovic's detention as a key contributor in triggering a "very significant change in the national psyche" towards asylum seeker and refugee detention in recent months.
"Silence and invisibility is a very important part of this entire infrastructure of harm," he said.
"Too many of us were willing to let these people suffer and die … all of that should weigh very heavily on our national conscience."
