Two new detention centres to be opened.

[spud_meister]

Two new detention centres to be opened, as children are moved into community housing | The Australian

THE federal government will open two new detention centres on the Australian mainland under sweeping changes announced today.

Children and vulnerable families also will be moved out of detention centres and into community accommodation run by churches and charities under reforms announced by Julia Gillard.

This is good news, the conditions will be better for children and families, who shouldn't be kept in tents behind barbed wire. And as it will be funded by charity, it won't cost taxpayers anything.

This bloke sums up my thoughts on the subject.

“This is a very good initiative, a good response to what we and other asylum-seeker and refugee agencies have been advocating for a while now: we cannot keep people in detention for indefinite periods of time, especially those who are most vulnerable, unaccompanied minors and families with children,” said the director of the JRS, Fr Sacha Bermudez-Goldman.

 

[Yossarian]

I too think that this is intelligent reform.

I would be interested to come back to this in a few months and look at statistics on boat arrivals though.

 

[spud_meister]

I know I'm in the minority here, but I don't care if the amount of boat people increase, if they truly are refugees, then we should be helping them, and if Abbot was serious about lowering the amount, he'd be making promises to stop what's sending 'em here.

 

[Yossarian]

Yeah but the thing is we take a bunch of refugees through legitimate UNCHR channels each year. I know someone personally who came as a UN refugee and who is highly skeptical of those who come by boat.

I think that UN refugees should be our first priority, and that mandatory detention is necessary to ensure the legitimacy of those who arrive.

 

[spud_meister]

I tutor children who have spent up to half their lives in UN refugee camps, so I can understand why people come by boat, I do agree that the UN ones should be given priority, but the amount of time people spend in Christmas Island is unnecessary.

 

[Orion]

I'm not getting why the centres are run by the U.S., but are on Australian soil?

 

[spud_meister]

I'm not getting why the centres are run by the U.S., but are on Australian soil?

They're not, the reference to the federal government is to the Australian federal government.