Australia has agreed to pay about $20 million (Aus$28 million) to compensate dozens of asylum seekers held for years in a remote desert detention centre, operated two decades ago by a conservative government to deter boat arrivals.
News agency AFP reports that the settlement relates to claims by former detainees who were held at the Woomera Immigration Detention Centre and later at Baxter.
The Woomera centre opened in 1999 in the southern Australian desert. Within six months, it held nearly 1,500 people, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan. Children made up about one-third of the detainees.
Human rights groups strongly criticised Australia’s detention policy at the time. Reports from the centre included hunger strikes, lip-sewing protests and attempted mass breakouts.
The facility closed in 2003.
Last week, Australia’s High Court ruled that the government does not enjoy immunity from compensation claims linked to unlawful immigration detention.
Shine Lawyers said on Friday that the government agreed to settle a class action filed by 38 former detainees. They alleged serious harm during detention at Woomera and Baxter.
Nicholas Kitchin of Shine Lawyers called the settlement a significant moment, but also a painful one. He said some claimants did not live to see the outcome.
He added that many former detainees have since built lives, families and communities in Australia, while continuing to live with the impact of their detention experience.
A Home Affairs Department spokesperson said the matter had been resolved “in accordance with legal principle and practice”.
After closing desert detention centres, Australia later transferred boat-arriving asylum seekers to offshore facilities in Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea while their claims were processed.
Separately, Refugee Action Coalition has urged Australia to medically evacuate a 36-year-old Kurdish-Iranian refugee held on Manus Island since 2013. The group said his mental and physical condition had severely deteriorated.
The group released images of Hatam Yekta, showing his emaciated condition in Port Moresby, where he is currently hospitalised.
Spokesman Ian Rintoul said his case reflected the suffering of several refugees still affected by detention on Manus Island.
Australia’s government maintains that Papua New Guinea remains responsible for refugees still in the country after a processing arrangement ended in 2022.
