Australia has agreed to pay roughly $19 million to 38 former asylum seekers who were held at the Woomera detention cente...

Australia has agreed to pay roughly $19 million to 38 former asylum seekers who were held at the Woomera detention center in the South Australian desert and sued the government over serious harm they suffered during their detention. The Woomera facility opened in 1999 and closed in 2003. Within six months of opening, it was holding nearly 1,500 migrants, most of them from Iran and Afghanistan, and a third of those detainees were children. The center drew widespread condemnation from human rights organizations, and detainees staged hunger strikes, sewed their lips shut in protest, and attempted mass escapes. The settlement was announced today by the law firm representing the claimants. In early June, an Australian court had already ruled that the government holds no immunity from compensation claims tied to detention later found to be unlawful. Lawyer Nicholas Kitchin said the day carried both significance and grief. He noted that some members of the group did not live long enough to see the outcome, and that for many others, Australia has since become their home, where they have built lives, families, and communities while continuing to deal with the consequences of what they went through. After Woomera closed, Australia shifted its policy toward offshore processing facilities on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus Island, where asylum seekers who attempted to arrive by boat were held while their claims were assessed. That policy was also heavily criticized by human rights groups. The Woomera settlement is one of the largest payouts connected to Australia's controversial asylum detention policies, which stretched from the late 1990s through the mid-2000s under conservative governments focused on deterring irregular migration. #Australia #AsylumSeekers #Immigration