Abstract In the interdisciplinary scholarship regarding immigration detention, the social, political and psychological costs of confinement are well documented. In recent years, however, scholars have also drawn attention to coerced forms of movement in some detention systems. Drawing on thirty in-depth, semi-structured interviews with volunteer visitors to Australia’s immigration-detention facilities, this article makes two main contributions to this scholarship. First, it presents empirical evidence regarding the use of forced mobility in Australia’s detention system. Dialoguing with work from other countries, it shows how these practices impact detainees and their supporters in the Australian context. Second, it builds upon and extends existing theoretical insights regarding the purposes of such mobility. While previous studies have concluded that relocations serve to isolate, punish and disorient prisoners, this article takes this argument a step further, positing that coerced mobility is also employed to encourage so-called ‘voluntary’ repatriations, thus serving overarching political objectives.