The Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce is seeking reassurances from public health authorities that people held in immigration detention centres in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney are being kept safe during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter to federal Health Minister Greg Hunt and Acting Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly, the taskforce – which operates under the auspices of the National Council of Churches in Australia – has asked for a guarantee that those held within the centres would have access to coronavirus testing should anyone show symptoms and for an assurance that staff are able to uphold the highest standards of infection control and prevention.
Rob Floyd, chair of the taskforce, said that with staff assigned to the Mantra Hotel at Preston in Melbourne’s COVID 19 lockdown area and assigned to Sydney’s Villawood Detention Centre having had recently tested positive to coronavirus, “we believe that the public health risks mean that those moving freely in and out of these centres pose the highest public health risk at this time”.
“In seeking these assurances, we must reiterate that our preferred position is that refugees and asylum seekers in crowded immigration detention locations in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney are safely transferred into community housing as a public health benefit for all, “he said. “We are some of the groups that have offered to help with housing.”
Liz Stone, general secretary of the NCCA, said in the letter that clergy and church members who had previously visited people in immigration detention “have conveyed to us their utmost concern about the public health risks associated with the living conditions of refugees and asylum seekers in hotels and detention centres during the COVID 19 pandemic – specifically at Preston VIC, Kangaroo Point QLD and Villawood NSW.”
