The Baxter detention facility, built to detain illegal immigrants, will be shut on this coming week with Christians describing it as a 'shocking reality.'
The facility, located in Port Augusta in South Australia, will be closed after the Federal Immigration Minister, Kevin Andrews, announced that the number of illegal immigrants had dropped dramatically since five to six years ago.
"There was always going to be a point where the numbers would not make it viable to continue this facility," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
"The numbers coming in by boat have dropped remarkably from the high levels they were coming in five or six years ago."
In a visit to Australia three years ago, the general-secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Reverend Dr. Samuel Kobia, was visibly distress at what he saw at the centre. He described it as a 'prison' and felt pity for the detainees being locked up, saying what they needed was Christian hospitality.
"I'd read and heard about the detention centres," he said. "But I must say I wasn't prepared for what I saw. I was really shocked, firstly by the physical reality - the high fences, the forbidding gates. I couldn't understand what made the government detain these asylum-seekers, who are not criminals, in a maximum security prison. Because that's what it looked like to me, a prison."
"That was one of the shocks I had. Then I looked at the detainees' faces. Many of them crowded around me, wanting just to whisper a few words. Almost all of them asked: 'Please, can you tell our story? And can you help to get us out of here?' I came out of Baxter with more than pity. I left wanting justice done, but also with the feeling of how much these people need Christian hospitality."
Despite the closure of the centre, refugee advocates are not celebrating. Talking to the Age, a local publication, the advocate said that a 'mega-detention' centre would be built on Christmas Island which is even more remote compared to the Baxter facility.
"Of course we welcome the closure but the bigger concern is the government is building the mega detention centre on Christmas Island," said Refugee Action Collective spokesman Ian Rintoul.
"Christmas Island is even more inaccessible and remote, so the closure isn't a step forward."
The detention centre had a controversial history, where it was subjected to demonstration by protestors as well hunger strikes and suicide attempts carried out by detainees. It was brought under the nation spotlight when it locked up Cornelia Rau, a permanent Australian citizen, who had a condition of mental illness.