Immigration Department warns Federal Government to start processing asylum-seekers on mainland
- Herald Sun
- January 14, 2010
EXCLUSIVE: THE Rudd Government has been warned to start processing asylum-seekers on the mainland or risk further riots and disturbances at Christmas Island's detention centre.
In a major challenge to the Government's border protection policies, the Immigration Department has given high-level advice that conditions at the frontline centre are close to boiling point.
As Christmas Island approaches 95 per cent capacity, the department is warning of the potential for riots following last year's melee involving Tamil and Afghan detainees.
And with intelligence agencies warning Canberra to brace for further boatloads of detainees, the Government is being urged to open spill-over facilities at Darwin.
It is understood Immigration Minister Chris Evans received the departmental warning about the deteriorating situation on Christmas Island in the past month.
The fifth unauthorised boat to enter Australian waters this year was intercepted on Wednesday, placing further strain on the crowded detention centre.
Amid growing signs of crisis, Cabinet's border security committee met in Canberra on Wednesday.
The PM's national security adviser Duncan Lewis and Australian Secret Intelligence Service chief Nick Warner are understood to have attended the meeting.
It followed the admission by the Government that four Tamil asylum-seekers were brought to Christmas Island despite failing ASIO security checks. They joined a fifth Tamil on Christmas Island who also failed security checks.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans said: "This was an ordinary meeting, but we were dealing with all those issues as you'd expect us to."
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott wrote to the holidaying Mr Rudd, demanding an "urgent briefing" on the security breach.
He also accused Mr Rudd of covering up the adverse security assessments and placing the nation at risk.
The latest arrivals pushed the number of detainees on Christmas Island to 1766, leaving just 54 spare beds.
But 53 detainees were due to leave the centre, including 22 whose visas had been granted. Another five were taken for medical treatment in Perth, three agreed to be voluntarily returned home, and 23 Indonesian crewmen were to be relocated to Darwin.
"We've still got some spare capacity at Christmas Island and we've been expanding that to meet demand," Senator Evans told Perth radio.
"I've always made clear: we have a detention centre at Darwin with capacity for 500 that is purpose-built and been used in the past.
"If we need to do that for the final stages of processing (we can) ... They'll be treated as offshore entry arrivals."
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