The Coalition is closing Inverbrackie detention centre because it is too “sympathetic”, says an Adelaide lawyer who has acted for asylum-seekers at the facility.
The federal government will close the facility, near Woodside in the Adelaide Hills, by the end of this year.
“The reason why they’re closing it is because it’s a sympathetic detention environment that allows families to live in near-enough-as-normal accommodation [and] for children to attend school,” laywer Claire O’Connor said.
“They want to make the detention environments cruel, and so they’re closing sympathetic places.”
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison’s office has not yet responded to InDaily’s inquiries regarding the fate of families and children asylum seekers and refugees still housed at Inverbrackie.
O’Connor said it was up to the government to decide whether they would be sent to another detention facility, such as on Nauru, or be released into the community.
“If they were being released it would be fine. It’s not about the people, it’s about the type of detention.”
A joint media release from Morrison and South Australian federal minister Jamie Briggs says the facility’s closure is the result of a sustained reduction in boat arrivals, and constitutes a kept election promise.
“For over three years, we have promised that a Coalition Government would close this facility and we are now delivering on this promise,” it reads.
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“Under the Coalition Government, a sustained reduction in boat arrivals will lead to a draw-down of our immigration detention network.”
The Coalition plans to close five detention facilities by the end of the year, including Inverbrackie, which it says will save the budget $280 million over the next four years.
Local Liberal member, and junior minister in the Abbott cabinet, Jamie Briggs, said he hoped a new use could be found for the centre.
He told ABC radio he would like to hear the local community’s views about the centre’s future, and floated the idea of it being transformed into an aged care facility.
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