The relocation of immigration detainees to the reopened Christmas Island detention centre will cost $55.6 million over six months, a Senate committee has been told.
Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram fronted a Senate hearing on Tuesday, revealing further details of the government's controversial plan to reopen the North West Point facility
Mr Outram defended the decision to transfer up to 250 detainees to the facility, saying it was a necessary measure to ease pressure inside mainland detention centres.
“We can’t return people to their country of origin - so where ordinarily people would be put on to a scheduled aircraft to go back to the country they came from, we're now having to take people straight into detention out of prisons," he told the inquiry.
Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram speaks during a Senate inquiry. Source: AAP
"That's actually getting us very close to capacity in our mainland detention centres and that’s why we’ve had to create some redundancy on the mainland system.”
Sixteen people have already been moved to the Christmas Island facility, with a further 15 people also in transit, the committee was told.
Mr Outram was asked whether asylum seekers would be exempt from this transfer process.
He said only people who had failed the legislated character test would be sent to Christmas Island, and there were no immediate plans to relocate refugees or people seeking asylum.
“It is our intention to focus on the section 501 detainee population,” he said.
“That is our current policy setting internally – whether that will have to change in future, I don’t want to lock myself in, but at the moment we have no intention of changing that policy.”
Those detainees already transferred from Western Australia consist of people who have been convicted of crimes, including assault, sexual offences, drugs and other violent crimes, according to the ABF.
Mr Outram said the medical needs of detainees would be considered when undertaking transfers.
COVID-19 response in immigration detention
Mr Outram was also pressed during the Senate hearing on the coronavirus precautions being taken to protect those in immigration detention.
He defended the response of the ABF and contractors, saying they had moved to implement measures to prevent an outbreak occurring in detention centres.
“It’s been a herculean effort to this point to keep COVID-19 out of our detention network,” he told the hearing.
“We are going to great lengths to firstly prevent COVID-19 getting into our detention facilities and secondly to detect any potential outbreak and get on top of it before it occurs.”
This includes the suspension of personal visits and requiring some detainees to eat meals in their rooms to meet social distancing requirements.
Anyone with flu-like symptoms is being tested and isolated, with new arrivals into detention also placed in quarantine.
“It’s worth noting that these measures have been successful, and we will work diligently to ensure that will continue to be the case,” Mr Outram said.
Lawyers and advocates have raised concerns over the conditions inside detention facilities, calling on the government to release some detainees to community detention to mitigate the risk of a widespread outbreak.
No detainees have returned positive results out of 228 tests conducted for COVID-19, the committee was told on Tuesday.
Last week, the Federal Court ruled a 68-year-old man must no longer be held at an immigration detention centre in Melbourne due to the risk of him catching coronavirus.
With AAP.
