Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre
Encyclopedia
Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre or commonly just Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre, is an Australian immigration detention facility located on Christmas Island
Christmas Island
The Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is located northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and ENE of the Cocos Islands....

 in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

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History

Temporary facilities for asylum seekers were established on Christmas Island at Phosphate Hill in late 2001. However, this temporary facility was found to be inadequate in terms of size, amenity and security. On 12 March 2002, the Australian Government announced the replacement of the existing temporary facility and the construction of a purpose designed and built IRPC on Christmas Island with a capacity of 1200 people. In June 2002, after a tender process, a contractor was appointed to design and construct the facility on a fast track basis.

However due to the reduction in the number of unauthorised boat arrivals in 2001 and 2002 (no unauthorised boat arrivals had reached the Australian mainland since mid 2001), the Australian Government announced on 19 February 2003 to scale back the proposed 1200 person IRPC to 800 places. The existing construction contract was terminated.

In September 2003, it was decided to proceed with the construction of the centre with accommodation capacity for approximately 800 people; 416 housed in purpose-designed and built accommodation units, and a further 384 in basic contingency accommodation.

Facility

The centre was constructed on a 40 ha (98.8 acre) site, formerly a phosphate mining lease, at the north-western end of Christmas Island, next to the Christmas Island National Park. The A$208 million centre was built by Baulderstone from January 2005 until August 2006, for the Department of Finance and Administration. It consists of eight accommodation units, education and recreation building, tennis courts and central sports area. Central facilities include induction/visiting area, main reception, administration centre, conference centre, kitchen, laundry and stores, medical centre and utilities building. External facilities include warehouse and visitor processing building.

In 2009, the capacity of the centre was increased to 1800 places and in early 2010 to 2040 places. In February 2010, the Federal Government announced to further increase the capacity to between 2200 and 2300 places "within a couple of weeks". In April 2010 there were 2208 people in detention.

Serco, a private contractor, manages the operations of immigration detention centres on behalf of the Australian government.

External links

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