Planning is underway to boost the capacity of the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre, in preparation for what may be hundreds of asylum seekers.
The federal government made the announcement this month, calling it a "contingency arrangement," in case they lose a High Court challenge against offshore detention.
It comes as residents on the island say they're kept in the dark about what's happening on their island.
And now that foreign nationals with criminal convictions are also housed at the island's detention centre, that lack of information is creating fear.
Ryan Emery reports.
Just a 45 minute flight from Jakarta, Indonesia, Christmas Island is actually part of Australia.
Many of the residents vote in the federal seat of Lingiari in the Northern Territory, and it has its own elected shire council.
There's also a federal government-appointed administrator.
But when it comes to what happens on their own island, the residents, many of whom are of a Chinese background, have very little say.
Usually, however, they at least hear about it.
But when it comes to the island's detention centre, they say they're being kept in the dark.
Shire President Gordon Thomson says the Commonwealth has become increasingly secretive about the goings on at the detention centre.
"They see the territory as a place that's the Commonwealth's business and that the people who live here are just incidental and decorative, perhaps, and they have to provide some services, but really the territory of Christmas Island is Commonwealth land to be used for Commonwealth purposes, which is not how communities are constituted on the mainland. Government is about serving the people. The people elect the government and the government serves the people. The Commonwealth does not behave in that way. It does not see Christmas Island in that way."
Some island residents say they received no official information when a riot broke out at the facility in mid November.
It had been sparked by the death of asylum seeker Fazel Chegeni who had escaped two days previously.
Rumour spread that something was happening, but nothing was clear.
A road block nearly two kilometres from the centre kept everyone away -- including the shire president.
With the centre now housing foreign nationals who've served criminal sentences and are awaiting deportation, as well as asylum seekers, anxiety levels appear high.
There was another riot five years ago and many asylum seekers escaped - even wandering into town - but local Peter Smith say things are different now.
"That dynamic has changed the outlook of the locals to the detention centre. The previous riots where they all broke out and were walking through town here, no one was overly concerned. But this time when we heard there were riots, everyone was locking their doors, taking their keys out of their cars and it just had a different feel about it."
A government spokesperson says there was no risk to the public during the unrest, but locals say they weren't told this.
Noorhidayah Ahmad would like the federal government to be more open about what's happening at the detention centre.
"I'm wondering if they can escape and go around here and yeah I get scared because they're criminals."
Shire president Gordon Thomson says locals weren't informed that Fazel Chegeni had escaped, either.
He wants more accountability from the government.
"On that weekend, there was quite a deal of concern within the community. They knew something was going on, they knew somebody had escaped, but the department wouldn't give any information. I rang the department on Sunday morning, and again on Monday morning, and I was chasing information so I could share it with the community, but it just wasn't forthcoming."
A spokesman for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection says the islanders' administrator was kept informed about the detainee's escape and the subsequent riot.
A government review is now underway into the incidents, and Australian federal police are investigating what charges will be laid over the damage caused.
