MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th August, 2020) The Australian Department of Home Affairs is failing to appropriately address COVID-19 threats in immigration detention centers across the country, an Australian rights organization said in a statement on Monday, slamming the government's decision to reopen the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Center.
The center was closed in 2018, but the following year, the government announced plans to reopen it for refugees and asylum seekers in need of a medical transfer from Manus Island and Nauru. Earlier in the day, the Australian Border Force confirmed that people currently in immigration detention on the mainland, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, will be temporarily transferred to the Christmas Island center "to relieve capacity pressure across the detention network in Australia." Notably, Melbourne is currently experiencing a new surge in infections and is under a six-week lockdown that started on July 8.
According to the Human Rights Law Centre, Australian medical organizations have repeatedly called on the government to release refugees held in detention centers to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NGO noted that other countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada, had taken preventive measures and reduced the number of people held in immigration detention.
"The Government clearly knows people are at risk in their crowded immigration detention centers � it beggars belief that they are going to such extraordinary lengths to avoid a humane and logical solution. By reopening detention facilities on a remote island, thousands of kilometers from specialist medical care, [Australian Interior] Minister [Peter] Dutton has chosen a dangerous and cruel response to a public health crisis," Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Center David Burke said, as quoted by a press release.
Australia has so far confirmed nearly 19,000 COVID-19 cases and 232 related deaths. At the same time, over 10,500 people have fully recovered from the disease.
