The Human Rights Commission also urged the government to close the remote Christmas Island detention center.

In a report released on Wednesday, the Australian Human Rights Commission urged the government to reduce the risk of COVID-19 to immigrant detainees by reducing the number of people in crowded facilities. The report also called for the closure of its 2,600-kilometer Christmas Island detention center. 1,616 miles) is located in the Indian Ocean in northwestern Australia.

The Human Rights Commission stated that while the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States all reduced immigration detention by 39%, 66%, and 69% in the first six months of the pandemic, Australia increased by 12%.

Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santo said: “The government should follow expert health advice and release people with lower safety risks into community housing.”

“The Committee believes that reopening the northwestern corner detention facility on Christmas Island is not an appropriate solution to the increasing number and overcrowding of other immigrant detention facilities. The island is remote, isolated, and lacks advanced medical facilities, which during the pandemic Poses a greater risk.”

This report is a public outcry against treatment Murugapan family, They were taken to Christmas Island in 2018 after their asylum application was rejected.The two young daughters of this family were born in Australia and are Now moving After Tharunicca, the youngest three-year-old child, was evacuated to Perth due to the risk of blood infection, he was sent to a “community detention center” in Perth.

For many years, Australia has taken severe measures against people trying to travel to the country by boat, sending them to offshore detention facilities and telling them that they will never be able to live in Australia.The government stated that a law passed in Parliament allows those detained overseas to seek Emergency medical care in Australia.

The report said that the center is often cramped and crowded, with bunk beds in the bedrooms and shared bathrooms, which makes it impossible to contain the physical distance of the spread of COVID-19.

The committee also pointed out that many people detained in immigration detention already have health conditions, which also increases their risk of contracting diseases. It added that the Ministry of the Interior had stated that as of September 28 last year, 247 people had been assessed as being particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus.

“The outbreak of COVID-19 in this environment, with such a high percentage of people susceptible to COVID-19, can be catastrophic,” Santo said.

The committee also questioned the use of two-week “operating isolation” for detainees returning from external meetings (such as doctor appointments), describing certain conditions as “prison-like”, and stressing that any measure that restricts the fundamental rights of individuals should be “Reasonable and necessary.” And commensurate”.

The Public Interest Advocacy Center (PIAC), which represented 14 detainees last year, filed a formal complaint about the risk of coronavirus, said the problem remains “deeply disturbing”.

“The pandemic may be easing, but we have seen Break out in closed environments such as aged care facilities Jane Leibowitz, PIAC’s acting chief attorney, said in a statement that this could be catastrophic and would result in a lockdown of the entire city.

“The government has an obligation to take care of those in detention. Given the high risk of transmission in a closed environment, we call on the government to expedite the vaccination of immigrant detainees and urge them to take immediate action to improve the safety of COVID in order to protect the detainees. , Staff and the wider community.”