'You Have No Choice': Australian Woman Describes 'Inhumane' COVID Internment Camp
A 26-year-old Australian woman detailed her experiences in a government run “quarantine camp” in an interview with United Kingdom magazine UnHerd. “You feel like you’re in prison. You feel like you’ve done something wrong, it’s inhumane what they’re doing,” Melbourne resident Hayley Hodgson said in the interview.
Hodgson was ordered to quarantine after one of her friends tested positive for COVID-19. Despite testing negative herself, uniformed police officers came to Hodgson’s home and told her she had no choice but to be taken to Centres for National Resilience in Howard Springs, a government-run camp.
If she refused, she would have been slapped with a crippling fine. “Police officers blocked my driveway,” she said.
“I walked out and I said, ‘what’s going on, are you guys testing me for COVID? What’s happening?’ They said, ‘no, you’re getting taken away. And you have no choice. You’re going to Howard Springs.’” The woman was told that “higher-ups” had ordered she be placed in the camp, and that she was not allowed to self-isolate at home.
Hayley Hodgson, 26, has just been released from a 14-day detention at the Howard Springs quarantine facility in Australia.
On today's UnHerdTV, she explains how police officers came to her home and took her away. Don't miss 👉 https://t.co/FK97QOkJ3E pic.twitter.com/Kf7MzRrc67
— UnHerd (@unherd) December 2, 2021
Once she arrived at Howard Springs, Hodgson was told she would remain there for two weeks. While there, she had very little contact with others and reported poor treatment from the staff. A video from Hodgson’s stay at the camp depicts an argument she had with camp guards regarding a supposed infraction.
Hodgson, and all detainees, are confined to small huts that are surrounded by a yellow line. The guards chastised Hodgson for making contact with another detainee while outside the yellow line, which detainees are only allowed to cross once a day to do laundry.
Hodgson was given a “warning” for the infraction and told that future infractions would result in a hefty fine. “It doesn’t have to make sense. There has to be lines drawn everywhere, yeah? And one of the lines is you cannot leave your balcony and you cannot talk to somebody else,” Hodgson was told by the camp guard.
“When it makes no sense or doesn’t seem right to you, that is the line and that’s what the law is, and that’s how it goes.”
Australian Hayley Hodgson was placed in a Covid internment camp despite testing negative for the virus
She was confined to a box for 14 days, offered valium when she complained about confinement, and lost her job
"You feel like you're in prison…"https://t.co/VaUoSmgx2T pic.twitter.com/fMs2HS0c5R
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) December 3, 2021
Earlier in the week, Australian law enforcement authorities launched a large manhunt after three detainees escaped from the camp, that is complete with barbed wire fencing. Armed police conducted random searches of vehicles in search of the trio, who were eventually arrested.
The full interview is available on YouTube:
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