OZschwitz: Refugee centre is more like a prison

REFUGEE advocates who have toured Australia's new immigration detention centre on Christmas Island say it is "extremely harsh".

The Federal Government has softened immigration laws so that fewer asylum seekers will be detained, and for shorter periods.

But boat people will still be detained on Christmas Island - and refugee groups have slammed the $400million detention centre's "high-security, prison-like character".

Amnesty International and seven other groups wrote to Immigration Minister Chris Evans following a tour of the centre last week.

The centre was "a stark environment to detain people seeking asylum [in] while their applications for protection are determined", the letter said.

"The very expensive security systems of the facility are quite unnecessary for the population who may be detained there.

"The damage that has been done to people's mental and physical health by detaining them in remote, high-security detention centres such as this has been documented repeatedly."

The letter, signed by groups including the Refugee Council of Australia and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, called for all asylum seekers to have their applications dealt with under the procedures that apply on the mainland.

Christmas Island is located in the Indian Ocean, more than 2000 kilometres from Perth; the centre can accommodate up to 800 people.

"The Rudd Government inherited the new immigration detention centre on Christmas Island which was designed and built to the previous government's specifications as a maximum-security facility," Senator Evans said.

Some fencing had been removed so families could live in a "community environment", he said.

He defended the Government's policy of mandatory detention and excising certain areas from Australia's migration zone.

LNK

OZschwitz: Refugee centre is more like a prison

OZschwitz: Refugee centre is more like a prison

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

Via AnCaps: Law & Enforced Unnatural Order