The facility was shut down last year, seven years after Australia launched its policy of screening asylum-seekers offshore.
But Kate Durham said part of the policy remains with the detention centre on Christmas Island.
“So it is processing people there who arrive in an unauthorized fashion. But to date the government has kept to its word and processed them quickly and those people as I understand have been resettled. I don’t think anyone’s been deported it that, from Afghanistan at least from there.”
Durham said she does acknowledge some improvements in the rights given to asylum seekers detained by Australia.
The president of the Refugee Council in Australia, John Gibson, said the treatment of asylum seekers to Australia has improved since the abolishment of its detention center on Nauru.
The Age newspaper recently reported that four Afghan asylum seekers who were sent home after being detained in Nauru, have now successfully gained refugee status after making a second attempt.
Council president John Gibson said the Rudd government has shown significant improvements in the treatment of detainees.
“People now have proper representation and are able to put their claims in. The basic factor is the great majority of them are coming from countries of persecution. So you know the various cohorts have been Sri Lankan, Iraqi, Afghan or countries where there are significant concerns about human rights abuses and persecution.”
Gibson said despite the improvements, he is still critical of detainees being confined under maximum security.
