The Australian Human Rights Commission has repeated its call for people in immigration detention facilities, who don’t pose a security risk to the community, to be released.
President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Rosalind Croucher said the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID) and the Australian College of Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC) had warned that overcrowded conditions in detention centres potentially posed a risk to detainees, staff and the broader Australian community.
“Infectious diseases experts have advised that those immigration detainees who do not pose a significant security or health risk should be released into housing in the community,” Professor Croucher said.
“The Commission supports this recommendation,” she said.
Professor Croucher said that since ASID and ACIP made their recommendation in March, the number of people in immigration detention had increased.
Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow said that with cases of COVID-19 rising in the community, the number of people in immigration detention facilities was a cause of concern.
“As Human Rights Commissioner, I inspect Australia’s immigration detention facilities and in many of these places it is simply not possible to practise safe physical distancing, especially where people sleep,” Mr Santow said.
“The Commission has advised the Government since March that urgent steps need to be taken to reduce the number of people in immigration detention, and since then the number of people in immigration detention has increased,” he said.
“An outbreak in a detention facility could be catastrophic, given that infectious diseases can spread uncontrollably in closed spaces.”
Mr Santow said many people in immigration detention had existing health vulnerabilities which put them at increased risk from COVID-19.
