SYDNEY, Australia — Australia has agreed to pay A$28 million ($20 million) in compensation to dozens of asylum seekers who were unlawfully held in a remote immigration detention centre in the country’s southern desert two decades ago, according to a settlement announced on Thursday.
The Woomera detention centre, which opened in the South Australian desert in 1999, held nearly 1,500 people—most from Iraq and Afghanistan—within its first six months of operation. A third of the detainees were children, and the facility was later condemned by human rights groups for its harsh conditions and remote location.
The compensation agreement resolves a long-running legal battle brought by former detainees who argued that their detention in the remote desert facility was unlawful and caused significant physical and psychological harm. The settlement amount will be distributed among approximately 80 claimants, with individual payouts varying based on the length of detention and the severity of injuries suffered.
The Woomera centre became a symbol of Australia’s hardline immigration policies under the conservative government of the early 2000s, which sought to deter asylum seekers from arriving by boat. The facility was closed in 2003 following widespread protests and international criticism.
This settlement is among several major compensation cases Australia has faced over its immigration detention policies. In 2017, the government agreed to pay A$70 million to settle a class action involving asylum seekers held on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, with legal costs bringing the total to over A$90 million. More recently, a landmark High Court ruling in November 2023 found indefinite immigration detention unlawful, triggering the release of hundreds of non-citizens and opening the door for further compensation claims that could cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
The UN Human Rights Committee has also ruled that Australia violated the rights of asylum seekers arbitrarily detained on Nauru, including unaccompanied minors who suffered from deterioration of physical and mental well-being. The committee rejected Australia’s argument that rights abuses on Nauru did not fall within its jurisdiction, stating that “offshore detention facilities are not human rights-free zones.”
