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- Some Australians who have found themselves trapped in Wuhan, China amid the coronavirus outbreak will be transported to Christmas Island where they will be quarantined, the Australian Government has announced.
- The remote Indian Ocean territory has long been a source of controversy for consecutive Australian government which has used it for years to house asylum seekers.
- Speaking to media on Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said "isolated and vulnerable Australians" would be transported, with young children given priority.
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An island off the coast of Australia, which houses a massive detention center for refugees, is being repurposed by Australia into a quarantine camp.
Having controversially used the remote Indian Ocean territory to keep out asylum seekers for over two decades, the Australian government announced on Wednesday local time it would use Christmas Island to quarantine Australians who have found themselves in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.
"We're preparing a plan for an operation to provide some assisted departures for isolated and vulnerable Australians in Wuhan and the Hubei province," Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told media on Wednesday. "We will be standing up Christmas Island as a quarantine area."
"This will be done subject obviously to working closely and with the authority and approval of the Chinese Government … I stress that this will be done on a last-in, first-out basis … we're particularly focused on the more vulnerable components of that population. That's young people, particularly infants."
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne confirmed there are currently around 600 Australians believed to be situated in the area. Those selected will be transported from China to Christmas Island, a small Australian territory south of Jakarta, a journey of more than 4,500 kilometers (2,796 miles). They are expected to spend 14 days in quarantine, Morrison said, while others will remain in China.
"There are some people who will be there [in Wuhan] for some time and effectively have been living there for some period of time. We are talking about people who are there not in those circumstances, those who don't have support structures in that place, those who are particularly vulnerable because they might have young children or they may be elderly," he said.
The Christmas Island detention facility was shut down in 2018, after years of controversy including unrest and protests within the center as well as stories of self-harm and riots. One man died there in 2015, falling to his death after trying to escape. The coalition government last year reopened the detention center after Parliament passed a medivac bill despite its opposition.
Just four people are currently detained there, costing the Australian government $AU30 million, a senate committee heard late last year.
Contrast this recent history with the separate image that Christmas Island has tried to craft for itself as a tourist destination.
"The islands display a curious amalgam of cultures, history, and industry, emerging as a place where all these elements create a truly unusual travel experience," its official website boasts.
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