BY MIKE BYRNE
BRISBANE — More than 80 people met on April 7 to discuss immigration minister Philip Ruddock's proposal to build a 200-bed medium-security detention centre at Pinkenba, close to Brisbane airport. The meeting was called by federal Labor MP Wayne Swann.
Swann said that the government plans to expand the centre to 500 beds. Although Ruddock has stated that the facility will hold people who have violated their visas, it will almost certainly be used to detain asylum seekers who arrive in Quuensland by boat or are en route to Brisbane airport to be deported.
State Labor MP Libby Clark also stated her opposition to the centre and also said she was opposed to the mandatory detention of asylum seekers, which remains federal ALP policy.
From Green Left Weekly, April 24, 2002.
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