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| Australia Shuts Down Detention Center |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/30/2002 |
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An Australian detention center for immigrants seeking asylum that was the site of several riots and hunger strikes was shut down last week. Officials cited the government's tough stand against human smuggling as the reason the center was no longer needed. Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said the last 30 detainees at the Curtin detention center in Western Australia state, 2,020 miles northwest of Sydney, were transferred to a new facility in South Australia. 'Curtin was able to be closed because of our efforts to curtail the activities of people smugglers,' Ruddock said in a statement, adding that no people-smuggling boats had attempted to enter Australia since December last year. A former military base, Curtin was one of five government-operated detention camps where asylum seekers were detained while their applications for refugee status were processed. The number of detainees in all five camps has dwindled from 3,000 last year to just 500. In August 2001, two new camps were built on the Pacific island states of Nauru and Papua New Guinea and boat-borne asylum seekers were taken by the navy there. The policy - the Pacific Solution - brought international condemnation, but was popular in Australia. Analysts said it was one reason Prime Minister John Howard's government won a third term in elections last year. During some of the disturbances at Curtin, inmates smashed property, torched buildings, injured guards and themselves. |
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