Third Fire at Baxter Immigration Detention Facility, SA
Media Release - DPS 101/2002
The Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) said today that yet another serious fire has destroyed buildings at the Baxter IDF, near Port Augusta.
The fire this afternoon is in a compound to which detainees were moved earlier today following a serious fire in a residential compound at the centre this morning.
In the fire early this morning sixty four out of seventy nine rooms were destroyed by up to five fires which were deliberately lit. The South Australian Fire Brigade's initial estimate of the cost of the damage to the accommodation units is about $2 million.
The trouble follows on from an incident that occurred in the early hours of the morning of 27 December, when two en-suite accommodation units were set on fire.
This afternoon's fire again puts at risk the lives of detainees not involved, along with centre staff and firefighters.
DIMIA will be seeking to take strong but measured action in response to the latest incident and is exploring all appropriate measures in cooperation with state and commonwealth authorities to bring those responsible to task and to bring this matter to an end.
Many of the people in the accommodation compound have been found not to be refugees and were available for removal while others were awaiting a review decision of the rejection of their claims for asylum.
This matter has also been referred to the Australian Federal Police and they currently have teams on site investigating the circumstances surrounding the fires.
29 December 2002
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