Rudd Government committed to Christmas Island detention
The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, today welcomed the third report of the inquiry into immigration detention by the Joint Standing Committee on Migration.
Senator Evans said many of the committee's recommendations from this and previous reports have already been implemented or are being progressed as part of the Rudd Government's New Directions in Detention reforms.
The minister said the Rudd Government was committed to maintaining its policy that all irregular maritime arrivals are detained and processed at Christmas Island while health, identity and security checks are undertaken.
'The Labor Party went to the last election with a commitment to maintain a system of mandatory detention and offshore processing on Christmas Island for all irregular maritime arrivals and these commitments are being met,' Senator Evans said.
'The detention centre on Christmas Island is an integral part of Australia's border protection regime and is the only large, secure immigration detention facility available other than the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney.
'The Christmas Island detention centre was built as a high security facility by the previous Government at a cost of $400 million and to make significant alterations now would be financially unfeasible.'
The Christmas Island centre has the capacity to house up to 800 people and is currently used to detain single men while they undergo health, security and identity checks. It is Rudd Government policy that no child be held in an immigration detention centre and there are no children detained in the Christmas Island facility or any other detention centre. Children and where possible their families are housed in community accommodation.
Senator Evans said interim works to improve stage one at Villawood had been completed with preliminary design work on a major redevelopment of the facility underway. Work on upgrades to the Perth Immigration Detention Centre is complete. Razor wire in all detention centres except for stage one at Villawood has been removed and replaced with more appropriate alternatives.
The minister thanked the committee for its unanimous endorsement in December of the government's Bill to abolish the harsh, inequitable and punitive detention debt regime and called on coalition senators to support the passage of the Bill this week.
Senator Evans also welcomed the committee's support for the Migration Amendment (Immigration Detention Reform) Bill 2009 which will enshrine in law measures that prohibit the detention of children in detention centres and embed in law the principle that people are detained based on the risk they pose.
URL: http://www.minister.immi.gov.au
/media/media-releases/2009/ce09074.htm
Last update: 18 August 2009 at 15:37 AEST