Christmas Island detention centres may be used as tourist accommodation
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Version 0 of 1. Two former detention centres on Christmas Island are being considered for use as budget accommodation for Asian tourists in an attempt to sustain the island’s economy after the loss of multi-million dollar immigration contracts. Christmas Island administrator Barry Haase told Guardian Australia on Wednesday the Phosphate Hill and Construction Camp detention facilities would be “ideal” tourism properties once released by the Department of Immigration. The closure of the two facilities was announced in the federal budget on Tuesday. The North-West Point facility, which was put on high alert after an apparent spike in self-harm incidents last month, will be mothballed in July 2016. Blaydin detention centre in Darwin will also close. The savings to the immigration portfolio are expected to add up to $555m over five years. Both Phosphate Hill and Construction Camp are classed as alternative places of detention and have housed children and families. Neither is a purpose-built detention centre. All children in detention on Christmas Island were moved in December. Haase said the announcement was “as much a blessing as it is a curse” because it would allow the island to focus on its tourism industry, beginning with the restoration of charter flights. His economic vision involves capitalising on what he described as “employer-sponsored tourism” in the form of a cheap three-day getaway to the conveniently located tropical island. Christmas Island is 1,600km north-west of Australia, but just 300km from Java. “In many of the very, very large factories in Asia, employees are rewarded with a paid short holiday,” he said. “The closure of those facilities opens up new opportunities for budget accommodation.” Haase said the attitude of Christmas Islanders to detention centres had “moved from disgust to appreciation” in the years since they opened, and most now only considered them as a potential source of employment. Christmas Island shire president Gordon Thomson disagreed, saying most were opposed to the centres. Thomson, who has been a vocal critic of Australia’s immigration detention policies, told Guardian Australia he was “absolutely fucking appalled by what’s being done to people who have committed no crime,” and said short-term economic pain was worth it to be free of the detention centres. But he said two restaurants had already closed as a result of the scaling back of local detention centres, and the Christmas Island Resort, a major employer on the island of 1,400 people, was struggling. Thomson, who is also the general secretary of the Union of Christmas Island Workers, said job losses and “economic distress” could not be avoided, but added, “I think in the long run it’s a good thing”. “The economic and social long-term preferences are that the detention centre closes and stays closed into the future, and all funding goes toward the restoration of the tourism industry,” he said. Thomson said the bulk of detainees held on the island in recent months had been people awaiting deportation after being convicted of a crime. Under section 501 of the Migration Act, the immigration minister can cancel the permanent visa of a person deemed to be of “bad character”, which can be interpreted as those who have committed a crime punishable by at least 12 months imprisonment. Both Thomson and Haase argued reopening the casino, which the island has been lobbying for since the Howard government blocked an application to reinstate the licence in 2004, would boost tourism numbers and create 400 jobs. The casino attracted wealthy crowds from Indonesia before closing in 1998. Successive reports have recommended reinstating the licence but so far the 2004 ruling, which said it would have a negative social impact, has been upheld. |