Australia to reopen offshore detention centre

Parliament rebuffed govt warnings and adopted legislation opening the door for some of the 1,000 refugees

already in detention and accused the opposition of trying to “weaken and compromise our borders”.

His government, he said, was adopting “100 per cent” of a series of recommendations from the country’s security services to further tighten efforts to prevent the arrival of migrants and asylum-seekers by sea.

He declined to specify what those classified measures were, other than to announce the reopening of the camp on Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory some 2,300 kilometres northwest of the western city of Perth.

“If they don’t come, it will be because of the work and the decisions we are now taking and the actions we are putting in place,” Morrison said. “If they do come, you can thank the Labor Party and (opposition leader) Bill Shorten.”

But authorities on Christmas Island questioned the move to reopen the detention centre, saying their health facilities are limited and they “quite regularly” medically evacuate people because their small hospital cannot handle complex treatment.

“Ensuring access to adequate medical care for refugees and asylumseekers is a life-saving, humanitarian act,” said Louise Aubin, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Canberra.

The opposition Labor party responded furiously to what it called Morrison’s “scare tactics” and said he was manufacturing a fear of migrants to win votes.

Ensuring access to adequate medical care for refugees and asylum-seekers is a life-saving, humanitarian act LOUISE AUBIN UN Representative