# Immigration detainees must provide personal identifiers

> act-s261AA — as in force on 2026-06-04 — C2026C00232 · Compilation No. 171 — https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2026C00232/latest/text

261AA Immigration detainees must provide personal identifiers
          (1) A non-citizen who is in immigration detention must (other than in
              the prescribed circumstances) provide to an authorised officer one
              or more personal identifiers.
        (1A) An authorised officer must not require, for the purposes of
             subsection (1), a person to provide a personal identifier other than
             any of the following (including any of the following in digital
             form):
               (a) fingerprints or handprints of the person (including those
                   taken using paper and ink or digital livescanning
                   technologies);
               (b) a measurement of the person’s height and weight;
               (c) a photograph or other image of the person’s face;
               (d) the person’s signature;
               (e) any other personal identifier of a type prescribed for the
                   purposes of this paragraph.
               Note:      Division 13AB sets out further restrictions on the personal identifiers
                          that minors and incapable persons can be required to provide.

          (2) The one or more personal identifiers are to be provided by way of
              one or more identification tests carried out by the authorised officer
              in accordance with this Division.
               Note:      Subject to certain restrictions, section 261AE allows reasonable force
                          to be used to carry out identification tests under this Division.

          (3) However, this Division does not apply to a non-citizen who:
               (a) is in immigration detention only because he or she is detained
                   under section 192; and
               (b) has provided a personal identifier in accordance with a
                   requirement under section 257A.