The Best Western Fawkner Suites and Serviced Apartments on Sydney Road signed a contract to turn its serviced apartments into a pop-up prison for refugees and people at risk of deportation.
This is similar to the arrangement that ABF has with Mantra Hotel in Preston, where 65 refugees from Manus and Nauru are being held in detention. The refugees were all medical evacuees to Australia because of their lack of specialist medical facilities.
Some of those in detention at the Best Western in Fawkner were imprisoned on Nauru for years before being evacuated to Australia to seek medical treatment, only to be locked up again.