CANBERRA, Australia, March 3 (UPI) -- Australia plans to build a new detention center for immigrants in Darwin on its northern coast and expand another one there, officials say.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the 1,500-bed center at Wickham Point, outside the city, would relieve some of the overcrowding on Christmas Island. The first 500 beds are expected to be available by the middle of 2011.
The facility at the Darwin airport is also due for expansion, with another 400 beds, Bowen said. Two facilities, the Asti Hotel in Darwin and Virginia Palms in Brisbane are to be closed this year.
Christmas Island, a 52-square-mile scrap of Australian territory that is only 200 miles from Jakarta, and 1,600 miles from Perth, has become crowded with refugees who arrive there by ship from Indonesia.
The Northern Territories government approves the new facility, Bowen said.
