Australia to Quarantine Evacuees From China on Remote Island

Source: Bloomberg

Australia will evacuate some of its 600 citizens stranded in China’s coronavirus-stricken Hubei province and quarantine them on an island with a grim history of detaining asylum-seekers.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Wednesday his government is in talks with Chinese authorities to evacuate “isolated and vulnerable” Australians and New Zealanders, such as the young and elderly, from the province. Canberra is also in discussions with Qantas Airways Ltd. to arrange flights that will take them to the Australian-administered island off the country’s northwest coast for as long as two weeks.

A s part of Australia’s policy to deter asylum seekers, from 2001 until 2018 Christmas Island was used as a detention center for people arriving from nations such as Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka without visas; they were denied permission to apply for refugee status and urged to return to their homelands

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-29/australia-s-island-evacuation-plan-from-hubei-raises-eyebrows