Australia Set to Re-Open Christmas Island Detention

Christmas Island, Getty Images, photo via BBC

Australia has quite a history of housing would-be refugees offshore. Many were housed on Christmas Island, just under 1,000 miles across the ocean from Australia’s mainland. The facility, operated from 2003-2018, may now re-open.

Why the change?

Australia’s parliament passed new legislation allowing migrants to be transferred from other, even further off-shore detention facilities to Australia’s mainland if they need medical treatment.

Australia’s response? Re-open Christmas Island and hire medical personnel looking to work in a “tropical location.”

-Kit