CANBERRA (Reuters)
- Six people detained in two remote Australian detention centers
for illegal immigrants have been diagnosed with typhoid fever,
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said Wednesday.
The cases involve Afghan, Iraqi and Iranian asylum seekers who
arrived recently by boat, part of a wave of illegal immigrants
flooding Australian shores in recent months.
Ruddock said
he had been advised by medical experts that the risk of transmission
of the life-threatening illness, which thrives in unsanitary conditions,
was unlikely.
"Nonetheless,
three people were hospitalized and the others are under constant
observation and are being treated by doctors at the centers,"
Ruddock said in a statement.
Medical officials
would also examine all the illegal immigrants who had arrived
on the same boat or boats as the stricken detainees, an immigration
spokeswoman said.
Concerns about
disease are one of the reasons cited by officials for cracking
down on illegal immigrants.
Australia
has strict quarantine controls for legitimate immigrants. Would-be
residents must undergo a compulsory medical exam to be cleared
of tuberculosis and yellow fever, among other diseases, before
being admitted.
Ruddock said
five of the typhoid cases were from the Curtin detention center
in remote Western Australia, which houses 885 detainees, while
the sixth case was identified at the Woomera camp in South Australia,
which houses more than 543.
The mandatory
detention of all illegal immigrants has been harshly criticized
by human rights groups, and riots, hunger strikes and breakouts
have plagued the centers.
The government
defends them and says it is determined to stem a flood of illegal
arrivals. Three boats carrying nearly 300 illegal immigrants were
intercepted in the first three weeks of 2001, while 50 boats carrying
3,080 people arrived in 2000.
Typhoid fever,
largely eradicated in the developed world, is carried in the bloodstream
and intestinal tract and spread through contaminated water or
human contact.
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