This is what life looks like in Australian quarantine camps
Freedom is imprisonment. At least that's true in Australia. And everyone agrees to put citizens who have tested positive in camps so that they can be kept free there. Quarantine hotels and centers have been around for a long time: People who enter from risk areas have to spend a fortnight here.
How many unvaccinated Australians can return home from abroad depends on the capacity of these camps. There have already been massive problems here in the past: Pregnant women who had to wait hours for food, allergy sufferers who were neglected, fear that employees could carry the virus outside - "Shouldn't quarantine camps be in the desert?" so the question in media reports.
For some time now, travelers who want to travel within Australia have also been accommodated in these camps: Those who enter the state of Queensland from a domestic risk area can also enjoy the hospitality of the state for a fortnight (and pay around 1,500 euros for it).
A few dozen “cases” can be enough to declare an entire region to be a risk area.
There have been several Aboriginal outbreaks in the northern territories: Aboriginal people often live in poverty, are isolated, live in cramped conditions and are less likely to be vaccinated. In order to protect them, so the reasoning, residents of the area who tested positive are now also centrally quarantined, as are contact persons for those who tested positive. They are brought to these camps with army trucks, because the army provides administrative assistance here.
Prison is called the Center for National Resilience
They are not prisoners, the quarantine camp is not a prison: however, the police patrol around the border fence, visitors are not permitted, bringing toys or leisure items (balls, bicycles) is not permitted, cooking your own food is not permitted, alcohol Is not allowed. "Care packages", personal items: Prohibited. Incoming baggage is searched. Residents of the camp must keep a minimum distance and are only allowed to leave their assigned rooms (including the veranda) with "permission from an authorized officer". The area and the fence are under video surveillance. (More on this here).
Detention is voluntary
If an inmate escapes, large-scale police operations begin: checkpoints are set up on the streets, cars are searched, patrols are dispatched. Search reports displace other messages from the first slot. Such a manhunt unfolded on December 1st when three teenagers (15, 16 and 17 years old) broke out of the camp. All three were not infected, but contact persons. After being spotted in a nearby location, they attempted to flee into the bush, but were caught by the police and taken back to the quarantine center. "They are not prisoners," said Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker after they were caught.
#BREAKING: NT police have swarmed the area around the Howard Springs quarantine facility after several people broke out in the early hours of the morning. https://t.co/9mVNHFG79i pic.twitter.com/qDjXlffZi1
— The West Australian (@westaustralian) November 30, 2021
According to Chalker, they fled because they could not stand the isolation in quarantine. They come from “remote, overcrowded communities” and could not have endured the isolation of their single rooms. They are Aborigines.
Breaking out of the camp is punished with 5,000 Australian dollars (approx. € 3,100).
They set up more video cameras, because they don't have the staff to guard all entrances and exits. “It's not a prison,” Chalker assures in the next sentence. “The people in there aren't criminals. They are people who have been caught up in the reality of Covid-19 ”.
In fact, the inmates are interned in small rooms. A veranda allows fresh air, but whoever defies the instructions of the staff and possibly sits on the empty veranda of the neighbors, talks to other "guests" - with a mask, distance, separated by a fence, will be fined 5,000 dollars and extended Quarantine threatened (at your own expense):
Source: Tichys Einblick
Posts
