Share this Story: Australian PM to reopen controversial Christmas Island detention camp after losing key vote on migrants Australian PM to reopen controversial Christmas Island detention camp after losing key vote on migrants Lawmakers voted to ease medical transfers. As critics of hard line immigration policies were celebrating their success, Prime Minister Morrison made an announcement Photo by AP / AP Article content After Australia’s conservative government lost a key vote on the treatment of asylum seekers held in offshore camps on Tuesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Wednesday that he would reopen a controversial immigration detention camp on Christmas Island, a part of the country but almost 1,000 miles to the northwest of mainland Australia. The camp was shut last October after years of controversies and riots there. Lawmakers had voted to ease medical transfers from offshore migrant camps in Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island to Australia on Tuesday, despite governmental warnings that the evacuations may encourage more asylum seekers to risk the perilous boat journey. The Australian Senate approved the bill on Wednesday. Conditions in the Nauru and Manus camps had been called “inhuman” by the UN and physicians had long been clamouring for the authority to bring the asylum seekers to Australia for medical treatment. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Australian PM to reopen controversial Christmas Island detention camp after losing key vote on migrants Back to video Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content As critics of the prime minister’s hard line immigration policies were still celebrating their success, Morrison announced that the Christmas Island camp would have to be reopened instead, “both to deal with the prospect of arrivals as well as dealing with the prospect of transfers.” Christmas Island is part of Australia, so asylum seekers could be transferred to the facility and still kept far away from the mainland, despite Tuesday’s bill passage. But human rights groups and the opposition immediately questioned the real intentions behind the reopening. “This is just further grandstanding from the government,” the Australian Human Rights Law Centre said in a statement to The Washington Post. “These people will need medical specialists and facilities that do not exist on Christmas Island, and the government is well aware of that.” Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Authorities on Christmas Island appeared to agree on Wednesday that they were not prepared for a sudden reopening of the camp. Calling the decision a “knee-jerk reaction,” council chief executive David Price told ABC Australia: “We’ve got a hospital (but) it doesn’t do operations. People are medevaced out quite regularly here for medical reasons as it’s only a small regional hospital.” Photo by REUTERS/Amnesty International/Handout Speaking to The Washington Post, Graham Thom, the Refugee Coordinator at Amnesty International Australia, cautioned that transfers from Nauru and Manus Island to Christmas Island could in fact represent a step backward. “It means putting people back into detention who can currently walk free in daylight hours, which may have a detrimental impact on their mental health.” Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content The opposition also cast doubts on the governmental claim that migrant numbers would rise as a result of Tuesday’s vote. The bill is limited in scope and only applies to migrants already on Nauru or Manus Island. Morrison’s critics blame him for making up a threat scenario that is not based on facts, to deliberately stir concerns ahead of elections that will take place at some point before the end of May. After losing a by-election in October, Morrison’s conservative Liberal Party lost its narrow majority in the lower house of Parliament last year, which paved the way for Tuesday’s historic defeat. The horrible rhetoric we're hearing does echo Trump's rhetoric of murderers and pedophiles. It's playing into people's fears Wednesday’s countermove by Morrison bears some of the hallmarks of President Donald Trump’s political maneuvers ahead of the midterm elections last November, when he rallied his supporters behind the idea of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Days before the polling date, more than 5,000 active U.S. service members were ordered to the border on a mission Democrats described as pointless and political. Spreading unsubstantiated claims that “unknown Middle Easterners” were in a caravan of migrants moving toward the U.S. border and describing the developments as an “invasion,” Trump was widely criticized for exaggerating or even inventing a threat that did not exist. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content Christmas Island authorities are worried about a repeat of the scenes until 2018, when the immigration detention center on the island became a flash point of the country’s hard line immigration policies. Former detainees described extended lockdowns and a lack of medical and mental health care in the facilities prior the closure, even though Australian authorities denied those allegations. In November 2015, the death of an Iranian Kurdish asylum seeker who attempted to escape the island but fell off a cliff sparked riots in the center, following years of protests there over conditions at the center and Australia’s immigration policies. Despite criticism from international rights groups and the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, the government has stood by its hard-line policy of directing asylum seekers who arrive by sea to the offshore camps. Thousands have been held on Manus Island and Nauru since the policy took effect in 2013, and about 1,000 remain on both islands, according to government estimates. Advertisement Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<doc-sep>Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the Christmas Island immigration centre will reopen, as border protection shapes as a key battleground ahead of this year's federal election. The PM's announcement came as the refugee medevac bill that delivered the Federal Government a historic loss was passed into law by the Senate. The Coalition claims the new law, which will make it easier for sick refugees come to Australia, will restart the people-smuggling trade. But Labor and the crossbench have rejected that and insisted the changes would only apply to refugees already on Manus Island and Nauru. They have criticised the Government for scaremongering and suggested any new arrivals would be the result of the Prime Minister's rhetoric since losing the vote. Labor has credited the crossbench for delivering the Federal Government a historic loss in the Parliament. The new laws will now head to the Governor-General for royal assent before becoming law. Look back at the blog to catch up on the day's events.<doc-sep>"[This is] a pattern of deceit and desperation from a man who is desperate to cling to office - a man who has nothing left, nothing left but deceit, fear and smear," she told the chamber on Wednesday.<doc-sep>SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia will reopen a controversial detention center for asylum seekers, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday after an embarrassing defeat in parliament that allows migrants in offshore camps to receive medical care in the country. The opposition Labor party and independents voted to amend hardline immigration laws to give doctors the right to transfer some 1,000 men and woman from two Pacific detention centers if they need medical treatment. The amendment, approved by the Senate on Wednesday, dealt a blow to the ruling conservative coalition which is trailing heavily in polls ahead of an election due in May. Morrison, offering a preview of a campaign pitch likely to focus on immigration, said the change would bring a new wave of asylum seekers and forced the government to reopen a detention center on Christmas Island, a territory some 1,550 km (960 miles) north-west of the mainland. “We have approved putting in place the reopening of the Christmas Island detention facilities, both to deal with the prospect of arrivals as well as dealing with the prospect of transfers,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra. Previously, asylum seekers intercepted at sea and sent to camps in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Nauru were not allowed to set foot in Australia unless the government decided they need urgent care. Immigration Minister David Coleman said on Sunday the change would bring a return of the days when thousands of asylum-seekers traveled to Indonesia and then paid smugglers to take them on to Australia by boat. Opponents accused the government of fear mongering, saying the amendment concerned only those already detained in the Pacific camps. “This legislation is confined to the current cohort of people on Manus Island and Nauru,” said Kerryn Phelps, an independent lawmaker. “It does not provide any kind of attraction to people to leave where they are and to try to make the journey to Australia because they will not be considered as part of this legislation.” In Geneva, Philip Lynch, director of the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), welcomed the new law and said that Australia’s system has “deliberately dehumanized” refugees and asylum seekers for decades. Also in the Swiss city on Wednesday night, Abdul Aziz Muhamat, a Sudanese refugee activist who has spent five years on Manus Island, won the Martin Ennals Award 2019, one of the most prestigious international human rights prizes, organizers said. “This award sheds light on the very cruel refugee policy of the Australian Government. It also brings international attention to the dangers and ill-treatment faced by refugees all over the world, including in countries that claim they uphold the Refugee Convention”, he said in an acceptance statement. The U.N. refugee agency, in a separate statement praising Muhamat’s advocacy work, said that UNHCR “continues to urge that solutions be found for all refugees and asylum-seekers under Australia’s ‘offshore processing’ in Papua New Guinea and Nauru as a matter of urgency.” ELECTION The Christmas Island detention facilities - shuttered last year after 10 years in operation - has been a central scene in the outcome of previous national elections. In 2001, Australia’s then conservative Prime Minister John Howard refused permission for a Norwegian ship carrying 433 rescued refugees to enter Australian waters. Howard, who was trailing in the polls at the time, won re-election and held onto power until 2007. After he left office, the center-left Labor government began holding refugees on Christmas Island. As a stream of new arrivals swelled already cramped conditions, protests broke out that fueled an image of a government that had lost control of national security, propelling the conservatives back to power in 2013. Morrison is hoping to use the issue to win favor with disillusioned voters, said Peter Chen, a professor of political science at the University of Sydney. “Morrison will be happy to fight an election on this issue. He doesn’t have a lot to campaign on, but on this he is on strong ground,” he said.<doc-sep>
Australia is to reopen a detention camp on Christmas Island after its parliament passed a new law which critics claim will encourage more asylum seekers to arrive by boat. The legislation - described by prime minister Scott Morrison as "foolish" - gives sick migrants easier access to mainland hospitals. Mr Morrison's conservative government claims the bill, which was passed by 75 to 74 in the house of representatives on Tuesday, will undermine Australia's tough refugee policy. Asylum seekers who attempt to reach Australia by boat are currently banished to camps on Pacific islands. Immigration Minister David Coleman claimed the change would bring back a time when thousands of asylum seekers travelled to Indonesia and then paid smugglers to take them on to Australia by boat. Image: The facility was mothballed last year after being in operation for a decade The Christmas Island centre - northwest of Australia and off the coast of Indonesia - was mothballed last year after being in operation for a decade. Mr Morrison told reporters in Canberra he had approved the reopening of the Christmas Island centre "both to deal with the prospect of arrivals as well as dealing with the prospect of transfers". The opposition Labor Party and independents voted to amend main legislation to give doctors the right to transfer migrants to the mainland if they need treatment. One of the independents, Kerryn Phelps, said the new measure was "confined to the current cohort of people on Manus Island and Nauru". She added: "It does not provide any kind of attraction to people to leave where they are and to try to make the journey to Australia because they will not be considered as part of this legislation." But it is a blow to the government, which is trailing heavily in the polls ahead of an election in May. Christmas Island is an external Australian territory despite sitting in the Indian Ocean around 960 miles north-west of the closest point on the Australian mainland.