The refugee policy of the Kevin Rudd Labor government has been slammed in a new report released by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
The report criticises the government for failing to implement all of the changes it has previously announced. In particular, it highlights that the long-term detention of refugees continues, some children are still detained and the government still processes asylum claims off the Australian mainland.
The report also recommends that the mandatory detention laws be repealed.
Releasing the report on January 13, Human Rights Commissioner Graeme Innes said: "While it is true we have seen improvements in the way Australia treats immigration detainees, our report shows we are still seeing children being held in detention facilities, people being detained for prolonged and indefinite periods and dilapidated detention centres being used for accommodation and now we also have the disturbing reality that the massive prison-like Christmas Island facility is open for business."
In 2008 the Rudd government announced several changes to refugee policy, changes that were touted by immigration minister Chris Evans as the "end of mandatory detention as we know it". These changes included the abolition of temporary protection visas in May 2008.
Although the government announced it would end the former government's notorious "Pacific solution" — whereby asylum seekers who arrived in Australia were detained in Nauru and on Manus Island — offshore processing of asylum seekers has continued at Christmas Island.
There are several options for the accommodation of refugees on Christmas Island, including community detention, the relatively small Phosphate Hill Immigration Detention Centre, the builders' camp, and the controversial 800-bed Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre.
Following the arrival of 10 boatloads of asylum seekers since September 30, Evans announced the reopening of the previously idle Christmas Island centre on December 19.
Up to 172 people are currently detained on the island. The majority of asylum seekers have come from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran and Iraq.
The centre has been criticised by refugee rights activists for its remoteness. Christmas Island is 2800 kilometres north-west of Perth, 2500 kilometres from Darwin and 500 kilometres from Singapore.
Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre told the December 19 Australian that she was very disappointed with the decision to reopen the centre. "I've seen the detention prison and I know from past experience that places like that make people sick", she said.
The detention centre itself is built on a rocky outcrop that is accessible only by four-wheel drive. This "out of sight, out of mind" approach to detention, as well as being injurious to the mental health of refugees, is designed to isolate the refugees from the solidarity movement on the mainland.
Refugee solidarity activists are also highly critical of the prison-like conditions inside the centre. CCTV and microphone devices in every room enable the close surveillance of refugees. Individual cells or cell-blocks can also be locked down using electronic doors and impenetrable mesh screens.
In a December 31 article in the West Australian, Jack Smit, from refugee rights group Project Safecom, criticised the housing of refugees in the new detention centre while there is still room in the Phosphate Hill centre and the builders' camp.
The authors of the HREOC report insist that the detention of refugees on Christmas Island should be ended altogether.
The report states: "People should not be held in immigration detention on Christmas Island. The Australian Government should repeal the provisions of the Migration Act relating to excised off-shore places. All unauthorised arrivals who make claims for asylum should have those claims assessed through the refugee status determination process on the Australian mainland."