FED: Room at Port Hedland for more detainees Ruddock

AAP General News (Australia)
08-17-1999
FED: Room at Port Hedland for more detainees Ruddock

CANBERRA, Aug 17 AAP - The Port Hedland detention centre was capable of handling the latest
load of boat people, despite nearing full capacity, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said
today.

"I want to make it abundantly clear that the facility is in a position to cope with the
numbers of people who have arrived unlawfully in Australia at this time," Mr Ruddock told
reporters.

"The situation is that during the course of this week, without me being any more explicit,
we anticipate that there will be some 130 to 140 departures from Port Hedland.

"They will occur in a number of ways and they involve people from numbers of countries and
that should certainly ensure that Port Hedland remains at the numbers that it's been able to
accommodate at this point in time."

The centre still had capacity to expand further, Mr Ruddock said.

"Our optimal numbers, that is our preferred numbers, are around 700, but the facility
itself can take up to around 800 people.

"So it is well within its capacity at the present time and it's important to be aware of
that."

Mr Ruddock also downplayed claims that staff were undertrained to deal with rioting among
the detainees.

"The fact that you are holding people in detention, of course, doesn't always meet their
wishes and you need to respond to that, you need to maintain the detention and you have to use
all reasonable force to be able to do so," he said.

"But you have to be careful that you don't abuse people in the way in which that is
undertaken."

Mr Ruddock said when riots broke out, specially-trained security staff were brought in to
deal with the situation.

The government had no plans to develop a detention centre on Christmas Island to deal with
the frequent boat people arrivals there, he said.

AAP daw/mfh/rsm

KEYWORD: BOAT RUDDOCK

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