CANBERRA, Australia, June 25 (UPI) -- The immigration detention center on Christmas Island off western Australia could be over-capacity if more boatloads of asylum seekers arrive, an official says.
Gordon Thomson, the shire president, told The Australian facilities are almost full.
"We're getting to capacity," he said. "Once it gets beyond that, they're going to have to look at either processing people very quickly, or after initial processing they would have to take people to the mainland."
The island houses 479 would-be immigrants, most of them in the main detention center. A Department of Immigration and Citizenship spokesman said the total capacity is 1,200, which Thomson disputes.
Sources told the newspaper one or two boats are believed to be en route to Australia from Indonesia, which has become a transit point for people fleeing violence in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
Christmas Island -- 52 square miles of land 1,600 miles northwest of Perth and 310 miles south of Jakarta -- is one of the most remote Australian territories. It has about 1,500 permanent residents.
