Coronavirus Australia: Dutton to re-open Christmas Island detention centre under pandemic planning

Guards are being trained in WA in preparation to reopen the high-security immigration detention centre to house Yongah Hill detainees.

Peter Dutton is to announce Yongah Hill Immigration Centre detainees will move to Christmas Island. pictures: Supplied

Preparations are underway to reopen the high-security immigration detention centre in the northwest corner of the jungle on Christmas Island as mainland detention centres fill up with criminals whose deportations are on hold due to the pandemic.

Christmas Island’s detention centre has been empty since February when it was last used to quarantine returned Australians from Wuhan.

The detainees from mainland immigration detention facilities will go the North West Point facility for approximately six months to relieve capacity within mainland immigration detention facilities due to COVID-19 measures, Christmas Island administrator Natasha Griggs confirmed in an email to residents late on Tuesday after The Australian revealed the plan by Australian Border Force.

“Global COVID-19 measures such as flight reductions and border closures, has curtailed the ABF’s ability to remove unlawful non-citizens from Australia,” Ms Griggs told Christmas Island residents.

“With unlawful non-citizens continuing to move from prison to immigration detention, and with required COVID-19 distancing measures in place within the detention network, this is placing the detention network under pressure.”

In a statement published on the Australian Border Force’s media website on Tuesday night, the department said: ”The cohort being transferred consists of those who have been convicted of crimes involving assault, sexual offences, drugs and other violent offences. This cohort is detained because of their risk to the Australian community”.

“The ABF is working closely with the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communication (DITRDC) and Western Australian authorities to implement quarantine requirements where appropriate for service providers and ABF staff deploying to Christmas Island.”

The Australian has learned that guards are being recruited and trained in Western Australia and supplies such as mattresses are on their way to the Indian Ocean Island, 2700km northwest of Perth.

The first people expected to be held at the detention centre are currently detained at the Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre in the WA wheatbelt town of Northam. Initially, up to 200 men will be sent from Yongah Hill to the Australian territory that once held thousands of asylum seekers who arrived by boat between 2008 and 2013.

Creating space at Yongah Hill, about an hour’s drive east of Perth, would mean that immigration detainees in Victorian and New South Wales centres could potentially be transferred there to quarantine before going to Christmas Island. This would also be a way of keeping immigration detainees safe from outbreaks in those states, The Australian has been told.

Wuhan evacuees prepare to leave quarantine at North West Point detention centre, Christmas Island, earlier this year. Picture: Colin Murty/The Australian

Locals told The Australian repairs and maintenance were being carried out at the centre in preparations for the reopening. Facilities deteriorate fast on Christmas Island in the tropical climate. Two thirds of the island is national park covered by monsoonal rainforest.

Guards recruited to Christmas Island from WA will not need to quarantine on arrival at the remote Australian territory because of a new travel bubble established between island authorities and the McGowan Labor government. Christmas Island has remained coronavirus-free throughout the pandemic and WA has recorded no cases of community spread in more than three months.

A family of Tamil asylum seekers is currently the only immigration detainees held on Christmas Island. The couple and their two young daughters live under guard at a camp next to the island swimming pool, which is on the other side of the island from the main detention centre.