Woomera, South Australia and Woomera was chosen as a site for such a facility. The establishment of the Woomera Immigration Detention Centre in 1999, through the refurbishment of the original Woomera Village construction camp at 'Woomera West', eventually brought in new permanent staff (as the Nurrungar people were leaving) to settle and maintain the village population at around 1,200. The immigration detention centre, however, proved to be a highly controversial facility and it closed in early 2003 after only about 36 months of operation, at which point the land and buildings were handed back to the Defence Department. Following the closure of the
Detention of refugee children in Thailand subject to detention. According to the UNHCR, the population of refugees in Thailand as of December 2016, was approximately 102,500 refugees of which 56,000 were children, mostly from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not have a formal asylum framework incorporated in domestic law. Instead, it relies on ad hoc policies established through Cabinet Resolutions. Refugees and asylum seekers are treated as illegal migrants and lack of legal framework makes refugees vulnerable to arrest, detention, discrimination, deportation and refoulement. Exploitation and abuse of refugees and asylum seekers