Christmas Island detention centre to be reopened by Morrison Government to free up facilities in Victoria

The Christmas Island detention centre will reopen because of pressure on holding facilities across Australia due to coronavirus. Tonight, the Australian Border Force said COVID-19 flight restrictions and border closures had curtailed its ability to remove “non-lawful citizens from Australia”. “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,” the ABF said. “To relieve capacity pressure across the detention network in Australia, detainees will be temporarily transferred to the immigration detention facility at North West Point on Christmas Island in the weeks ahead.” The ABF said those being transferred to Christmas Island were “detained because of their risk to the Australian community” and had been convicted of crimes involving assault, sexual offences, drugs and other violent crimes. The facility at North West Point was used in February to quarantine evacuees from Wuhan in China. The decision to reopen the facility was ticked off by the National Security Committee of Cabinet this week. The Australian reported tonight that guards were being recruited and trained in WA and supplies are on their way to the island. The guards will not need to quarantine on arrival because of a new travel bubble established between island authorities and the State Government. Christmas Island sits between Indonesia and WA and is 2600km north-west of Perth.