The facility has previously housed asylum seekers and, more recently, Australians returning from coronavirus hotspots.

The ABF confirmed on Tuesday evening that people currently in immigration detention will be “temporarily” transferred to the facility at North West Point on Christmas Island, where Australians returning from Wuhan were held in the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Human Rights Law Centre said that reports that the federal government will reopen the detention centre highlight the failure of the Minister for Home Affairs to appropriately respond to the threat posed by COVID-19 in immigration detention. 

“Everyone deserves to be safe and treated humanely in the middle of this public health crisis. There is an easy and safe solution to the threat posed by COVID-19 – [minister Peter] Dutton could today release the women and men held unnecessarily in immigration detention centres into housing in the community where they can socially distance,” David Burke, legal director with the Human Rights Law Centre said.

“The [government] clearly knows people are at risk in their crowded immigration detention centres – it beggars belief that they are going to such extraordinary lengths to avoid a humane and logical solution. By reopening detention facilities on a remote island, thousands of kilometres from specialist medical care, [minister] Dutton has chosen a dangerous and cruel response to a public health crisis.

“The Morrison [government] needs to put politics aside, listen to the medical experts and protect the people currently held in detention, the staff working there, and the community.”

Since the start of the pandemic, medical experts across Australia – including the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases and the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control – have repeatedly called on the federal government to release people held in detention to protect against a widespread outbreak. 

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Other countries such as the UK and Canada have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by reducing numbers of people held in immigration detention. 

In a statement, the ABF said Christmas Island was being reopened “to relieve capacity pressure across the detention network in Australia”.

Restrictions placed on air travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic have prevented Australian authorities from deporting a cohort of non-citizens, ABF stated.

“Those being transferred to the island north-west of Western Australia include foreigners convicted of assault and drug and sexual offences,” ABF said in a statement.

The transfer would create space for detainees in eastern states to be transferred to Western Australia to avoid the risks of coronavirus infection in Sydney and Melbourne. After a period of quarantine in Yongah Hill, those detainees could be sent to Christmas Island.

Jana Favero, director of advocacy and campaigns at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said that they were highly concerned for their clients who were held by the Morrison government in detention centres during hard lockdown and rising case numbers.

“Many are experiencing rapidly deteriorating mental and physical health and need to be released into the community where they can protect themselves and go into [lockdown] like the rest of Victoria,” Ms Favero said. 

“Instead of following the advice of medical professionals, the [government] is resorting to removing people offshore to Christmas Island, intentionally out of sight and far away from their case workers, legal representation and community support networks, risking mental health even further. 

“Minister Dutton is exporting his duty of care and responsibility for the health of people he has indefinitely detained for over seven years for political gain instead of viable and humanitarian solutions.”