Sydney, June 19, 2026 (AFP) - Australia agrees to pay millions to compensate asylum seekers locked in desert

NAMPA / AFP

2026-06-19

Australia has agreed to pay Aus$28 million ($20 million) to compensate dozens of asylum seekers held in a remote immigration detention centre two decades earlier by a conservative government seeking to deter boat arrivals. The Woomera detention centre opened in the southern Australian desert in 1999. Within six months it held nearly 1,500 people, most from Iraq and Afghanistan. A third of detainees were children. The centre led human rights group......

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