‘Ungrateful’: Coronavirus evacuees criticised for complaints about Christmas Island
Christmas Island locals have ridiculed coronavirus evacuees for complaining about cockroaches and poor internet, while they’re quarantined at the island’s detention centre.
National
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Christmas Island locals have ridiculed complaints made by “ungrateful” coronavirus evacuees about cockroaches and poor internet at the island’s detention centre.
Dozens of locals vented their frustration on a closed social media group, saying services at the repurposed facility were better than those available to most Christmas Island residents.
“What, they have internet? Lucky them!” Craig Seeley wrote on the CI Blackboard page, which serves as a local community noticeboard.
“Send back to China. Ungrateful,” wrote Dean Weymark.
Their comments came as Christmas Island prepared to receive another 35 Australians who were flown back to New Zealand from China yesterday.
They are expected to arrive on the island about 9am (AEST) tomorrow, after flying from Auckland via Brisbane.
“They’ll go plane to plane on the tarmac,” Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said.
“So it will be a very quick process as I understand. They’ll stay on the plane in Brisbane when there’s a crew change and then they’ll go on to their final destination at Christmas Island from there.”
While sources inside the centre say most of the 241 evacuees who arrived on Monday have been extremely grateful for the care they are receiving, the complaints of a handful have left many locals fuming.
A woman who complained about a single cockroach was a particular sore point.
“Has any CI resident been able to contain cockroaches? Welcome to the real world, not just Christmas Island. Were they expecting a four-star resort? Just imagine the cost and effort involved and the logistical nightmare in bringing them here,” Sharon Tisdale wrote on the CI Blackboard page.
“So there are no cockroaches in Wuhan? One wonders why they hopped on a free flight out of China then. Perhaps a little gratitude and thanks would be better than whingeing,” said Ian L Mullins
Alvina Walker simple wrote: “Welcome to the jungle.”
The locals’ gripes were backed by Christmas Island Administrator Natasha Griggs who told News Corp “creepy crawlies” were part of life on Christmas Island and that everything possible was being done to make the evacuees’ stay as comfortable as possible.
“Like any community you don’t like your home being criticised, so there’s been some angst around that,” she said.
“We’re a very proud community and we love this beautiful environment we have here. It’s so close to nature and part of that is that we have creepy crawlies.”
Many locals say the evacuees should be grateful for the service they are receiving. While they are served prepared meals each day including cereals, hot meats, fruit and vegetables, locals often have to fork out hefty prices for fresh produce.
At the Christmas Island Supermarket yesterday a single lettuce was selling for $9.64, while an avocado cost $5.97.
Cauliflower was available for $8.16 and a 500g tray of grapes was on offer for $7.35. A single zucchini cost $5.63.
Locals have to wait for a delivery of fresh fruit and vegetables every second Friday. This Friday, Defence is flying in mass supplies for the evacuees.
“There are some interesting things about living on Christmas Island and food is always one of our challenges, but we’ve got some amazing people working through the logistics and the people are going to be fine, they’re going to be fed, and they’ll be very happy,” Mrs Griggs said.
Christmas Islanders don’t have the luxury of constant internet connection. Telstra provides only a 2G mobile service which allows calls and messages, but no data for internet.
This point wasn’t lost on several locals when they heard complaints from evacuees about a lack of wi-fi at the detention centre.
“If they catch those cockroaches can they send little messages tied to their legs. Probably quicker than the internet,” Patrick Yeoh said.
Others ridiculed the evacuees, saying they’d be happy to play with the cockroaches after they met the local biting centipedes.
Meanwhile, the government is considering using isolated mining camps or taking over hotels to quarantine people evacuated from Wuhan or if other Chinese provinces are shut down and Christmas Island is full.
“We have some head room (on Christmas Island) at the moment but we need to rely on the advice of the chief medical officer to look at whether even within the same facility they want to isolate people or if they’re happy having people in one room next to the next room or they want one room left vacant in between the two individuals,” Mr Dutton said.
“There are isolated mining camps or prospect of hotels that you could take over. But I think we’ll look at all of those in order of what we think is the best response but all of this is in the spirit of preparation. And I suppose the message should be for Australians that people should be reassured we have done the homework here.”
Originally published as ‘Ungrateful’: Coronavirus evacuees criticised for complaints about Christmas Island
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