Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Center

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Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Center (2008)

The Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Center , including Christmas Island Immigration Detention Center called (German: Immigration Detention Center ), is a since 2001 existing Australian detention center for asylum-seeking boat people that there in immigration detention be taken. It has not been used since October 2018, but it was announced that it would be operational again in February 2019.

Although Christmas Island is part of Australian territory, the Australian government has removed this area from Australia's official migration zone so that asylum seekers can no longer apply for asylum there, which they are legally entitled to on the mainland. Today Australia (as of May 2017) has a zero tolerance policy , the so-called Operation Sovereign Borders , under which ships with refugees are intercepted on the high seas and forced to turn back. According to the organization Globaldetentionproject, Australia pursues the most rigid migration and asylum policy in the world.

Establishment of the camp

Christmas Island is an approximately 137 km² large island in the Indian Ocean , which is located approximately 2600 kilometers northwest of Perth in Australia and 500 kilometers south of Java in Indonesia.

This internment camp was founded by Prime Minister John Howard of the Liberal Party of Australia . In the course of the Tampa affair in 2001, his national liberal government prevented 438 shipwrecked boat people from entering Australian territory and deported them to camps in third countries on Manus and Nauru .

These internment camps, located in third countries, were not only structurally unsuitable for accommodation in many respects, but were also not prepared to accommodate large numbers of boat people. As a result, they soon reached their capacity limits. In order to continue the policy of this government, which is called the Pacific Solution , the government selected buildings on Christmas Island at North West Point after the Tampa Affair . The island is located on Australian territory, but far from the Australian mainland. The existing structures were unsuitable for use as a community facility, this was true with regard to their size, accommodation and monitoring options, but they were occupied and the structures on Phosphate Hill were first used by boat people as an internment camp in 2001.

capacity

Entrance sign

The Australian government intended to optimize the camp for 400 boat people so that outbreaks and unrest among the occupants could be prevented in any case, and planned a new building. Shortly thereafter, a capacity of 800 people was estimated. The construction contract with a cost proposal of A $ 276 million was awarded to Baulderstone Hornibrook , then a subsidiary of the German construction company Bilfinger . Construction costs rose to over 336 million and were A $ 400 million by the time it was completed. The amount was ten times higher than if the facility had been built in New South Wales .

The island, which is located far from Australia, had a population of around 1500 in 2001, of which around 65 percent were Chinese, 25 percent Malay and 15 percent European. On the island there were no social and logistical structures or conditions that could cope with such a large increase in population. This applied both to the catering and care of the interned boat people as well as to the necessary security and administrative staff. The camp personnel had to be flown in and could only be accommodated close to the camp because there were too few private accommodations in the island's capital, Flying Fish Cove , 17 kilometers from the internment camp .

Not only were the construction costs enormous, but also the costs of maintaining the asylum seekers. Because the required building material, like almost everything that the asylum seekers need to live, had to be transported to the island by ship or plane. While the cost of community accommodation workers in Australia is around A $ 190, it is A $ 1,600 higher for asylum seekers on Christmas Island.

This government policy continued until Kevin Rudd of the Australian Labor Party won the Australian election in 2007 and ordered the internment camps to be closed for boat people. This decision was easy for the Rudd government at the time, because at that time there were only a few boat people on their way to Australia and also to Christmas Island. This state of affairs only lasted for a short time, however, because as from November 2007 more and more ships with boat people began to arrive, the internment camps were put back into operation. Gradually, the storage capacity on Christmas Island was increased to 2040 inmates. In 2010, the camp was completely overcrowded with 2,208 people, so that numerous asylum seekers had to be relocated to mainland Australia.

At the end of February 2017, there were 264 asylum-seekers in the internment camp on Christmas Island; in all Australian camps there were a total of 1,383 people.

Buildings

The electrically charged outside fence
The entrance area of ​​the warehouse
Lilac Compound

The camp is enclosed by an electrically charged fence . Motion detectors, cameras on the roofs and in every room are installed. Inmates report that the asylum seekers have electronic identities that make it possible to track everyone.

The camp site, which covers 40 hectares, is located on the northwestern end of the island, close to Christmas Island National Park . There are several buildings on the site, separated into sections by fences. In 2009 the capacity was increased to 1,800 and at the beginning of 2010 to 2,040 spaces. The intention was to increase the occupancy capacity to 2200 and then to 2300 people within a very short time.

The Australian Human Rights Commission visited the camp in August 2012 and counted a total of 1989 inmates, including 314 children and adolescents, with a normal capacity of 1000. The building called Christmas Island IDC is a high-security center for male adults with a capacity of 400 and a maximum capacity of 850 In 2012 there were 975 imprisoned boat people. The Lilac Compound ( Lilac = purple , Compound = warehouse ) is a high-security area that was built with a capacity for 150 unaccompanied young people and can be occupied by a maximum of 200 people. In 2012, 114 people were accommodated, including 101 unaccompanied adolescents and 13 adult men. The Aqua Compound is another high-security area that housed adult men, families with children, and unaccompanied teenagers and minors. The normal capacity is usually 200 people and the maximum is 400. In 2012, 415 people were accommodated, including 347 men, 33 women and 35 children. In the so-called Construction Camp Immigration Detention Facility , a building complex with a so-called low- security area, there were families in groups and families with children. The capacity is normally 200 and in extreme cases 400 people. In 2012, 485 people were detained, including 144 men, 162 women and 179 children. There is also a hospital and a theater, rooms for visitors with opaque windows, an area for sports activities and classrooms, as well as separate compartments for families with small children and childcare.

The warehouse is managed and operated by the private service company Serco on behalf of the Australian federal government.

Protests

In the camp there were ongoing protests against the accommodation, which were mainly directed against the conditions there and the long length of stay.

In 2011, more than 250 inmates protested, threw stones at the staff and set fires, which caused severe damage. The riot was suppressed using tear gas and rubber bullets.

In early 2012, around 375 inmates went on hunger strike, with many having their lips sewn together. They carried out the strike in solidarity for Reza Barati , who died in the Manus Regional Processing Center , an Australian internment camp on the island of Manus near New Guinea .

Unrest broke out again on November 9, 2015, after an asylum seeker who had fled the camp was found dead at the foot of a cliff. This resulted in significant property damage in the warehouse, which was estimated at A $ 10 million. 27 people who are said to have played a key role in unrest in the camp were deported to mainland Australia. According to a study published by Doctors Without Borders in December 2018 , 30 percent of 208 refugees examined had already attempted suicide. 60 percent reported having suicidal thoughts. According to its own information, the organization has so far hardly been confronted with such pronounced mental ailments.

Due to the conditions in the warehouse, it was closed in October 2018. Since then it has been in a state of readiness so that it can be opened again at short notice if necessary. On February 13, 2019, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the camp would be restarted as refugee numbers were expected to rise again.

Web links

Commons : Christmas Island Immigration Detention Center  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Australia Immigration Detention , December 2008, on Globaldetentionproject. Retrieved May 4, 2017
  2. ^ A b c David Marr: The Indian Ocean Solution , July 8, 2003, on The Monthly. Retrieved May 4, 2017
  3. ^ A b Paige Taylor: Department of Immigration sends 184 asylum-seekers to Darwin and Port Augusta , April 20, 2010, on The Australian. Retrieved May 4, 2017
  4. ↑ Immigration Detention And Community Statistics Summary , February 28, 2017, on Department of Immigration and Border Protection . Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  5. ↑ Immigration detention on Christmas Island - Observations from visit to Immigration detention facilities on Christmas Island , from 2012, on the Australian Human Rights Commission. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  6. ↑ Andrew Martin: Christmas Island escape highlights bad conditions , April 2013, at directaction.org.au. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  7. ↑ Asylum seekers on Christmas Island stitch lips together in hunger strike , November 12, 2012, on The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  8. ↑ Powell Greame: Christmas Island detention center 'calm' after 'stand-off' with authorities following refugee's death , from November 12, 2015, on abc.net. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  9. ↑ Stephanie Anderson, `` Christmas Island riot: Dutton confirms $ 10m damage bill as more detainees moved from center to Perth, '' November 12, 2015, on ABC News. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  10. ↑ a b Notorious refugee camp opens again. ORF , February 13, 2019, accessed on the same day.

Coordinates: 10 ° 28 ′ 15.9 ″  S , 105 ° 34 ′ 32.1 ″  E