Two hundred refugees had been evacuated from Manus Island under the Medevac legislation in 2019. Sixty-five of them were taken to Melbourne and detained at the Mantra hotel in Preston for one year and a half. Once the contract with the Mantra hotel expired, the refugees were transferred to another hotel detention close to Melbourne's central business district in December 2020, the Park hotel. Previously known as the Rydges, the Park hotel was one of the "hot hotels" used exclusively to accommodate returned travellers who had tested positive for COVID-19. In June 2020, it was the cause of the second outbreak that Melbourne experienced.
In January 2021, approximately 50 refugees were released into the Australian community, and about 35 refugees today (5th of February 2022) are still detained for almost nine years.
Since the refugees arrived in Melbourne in July 2019, activists are daily protesting outside the detention centres, often met by heavy-handed police. They are exposing the cruel Australian refugee policy and keeping the pressure up that possibly could win the freedom for the refugees.


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