Detention
Visiting People in Detention
Would you like to visit people who were detained on Christmas Island and are now currently in mainland detention centres? Some asylum seekers in Darwin, Perth and Sydney detention centres would love to have visitors and have requested mainland Aussies come and visit them.
If you would like to visit someone or would like more information, please contact ASCI on visits@asylumseekerschristmasisland.com
Click here for DIAC's information about visiting people in detention
About Detention
Under current legislation, asylum seekers held to be unlawfully entering Australian territory are mandatorily detained in an immigration detention centre (IDC) located on Christmas Island, an outlying territory in the Indian Ocean, located approximately 2600km from the mainland but only 500km from Jakarta, Indonesia. The period of their detainment is dependent on the time required to verify their identity, process their application for refugee status and, pending the successful grant of that status, the issue of an Australian Humanitarian Visa.
The official number of asylum seekers in detention on Christmas Island currently stands at 1968 as at 26th March 2010, however numbers have greatly increased since then. The island itself has a local population of under 2000 people, and in addition to security officers, immigration officers, Red Cross and other service providers, the island’s resources are being pushed to breaking point. One hospital services the entire island. All resources, including fresh food must be specially shipped to the island.
The Christmas Island IDC (North West Point)
The primary and more heavily patrolled centre is located at North West Point (NWP) and houses only men, and was built for a regular use capacity of 400 adults and a surge capacity of 800 in the purpose built, $400 million facility. As capacity has increased, the hasty construction more accomodation comprising demountable buildings and marquee tents shipped from the mainland. The most recent statistics released by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has listed the total number of men detained at North West Point as 1549 as at 7th May 2010.
Phosphate Hill IDC
This facility is located only 5km from the settled areas of Christmas Island. A much smaller compound, the centre has deliberately lowered fences to accomodate unaccompanied minors, vulnerable clients and/or those that need to be accomodated separately from the NWP facility. Comprising Alpha and Bravo compound, the facilities are very limited in comparison to NWP comprising only demountable buildings, poor air conditioning, & little open space.
Construction Camp
The construction camp is a collection of demountable buildings initially established to accomodate the people involved in building the primary IDC in 2000. It is currently housing families and unaccompanied minors. Numbers within Construction camp are currently over 400.
While attempts have been made to make the family camp feel less like a detention facility by removing the high fences, the asylum seekers still do not have freedom of movement and are under constant surveillance.
The accommodation consists of light weight transportable accommodation buildings with shared en-suites, recreational buildings, an administration building, laundry, stores building, kitchen dining facility, and accommodation to suit people with a disability.
To read more about the IDC facilities from the Australian Parliament's Joint Standing Committee On Migration, Inquiry into Immigration Detention in Australia, August 2009 click here