Advocates for alternatives to detention for children have welcomed Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail's commitment to follow through with the ministry's plans that could see minors being moved out of the Immigration Department's depots into external shelters.

Their stand is in line with a general view that no children should be kept in detention, while also focusing on circumstances faced by unaccompanied minors - currently numbering 679 detainees in 19 depots, according to government data as of April 12.

The remaining 351 children are detained together with either one or both parents, mostly in the process of obtaining travel documents from their respective embassies before being deported...