Hiya Bruce!
A large number of Australians object to the mandatory detention of asylum seekers either within Australia or under the "Pacific solution" (awfully Nazi-sounding name isn't it?) of paying Nauru to house them in a camp in their country rather than in Australia. I am one of the objectors.
Conditions are reported to be, well, like a prison. Not so harsh as Gitmo, and no interrogations (as far as I know), but even children would be locked up in this way.
That said, the prison camps had
a procedure for assessing asylum claims, and the very large majority were eventually granted.
As for the remand point - don't all countries do that? Does the USA? Assess at the bail hearing, if the person is apparently dangerous or a flight risk, they are held (not, as your quote states, in the "regular" prison system, but in remand centers, which are very prison like).