Australia’s quarantine facilities are for travelers, not for isolating unvaccinated people

As Australia prepares to loosen its strict COVID-19 border controls, misinformation is spreading about who will be affected by shifting regulations.

One viral video post said, "Australia to Implement Quarantine Camps for the Unvaxed." It was shared by the account of "The Charlie Kirk Show," whose founder is known for spreading falsehoods.

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

In the post, the account shows footage from an Australian morning show that interviewed the premier of the state of Queensland, Anastasia Palaszczuk, on Oct. 19, the day after the state announced it would gradually reopen its borders to domestic and international travelers. The segment used in the claim shows Palaszczuk saying that a planned quarantine facility will be needed for travelers returning from high-risk countries and unvaccinated people.

A narrator then says, "Well, well, well, naughty, naughty Anastasia. You just admitted on camera that you’re going to plan to put the unvaccinated into quarantine camps."

The claim implies that anyone who is not vaccinated against COVID-19 will be placed in a quarantine facility based solely on their vaccination status, which is false. The planned facility is intended for travelers, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated.

Queensland plans to use the facility for fully vaccinated international students when they enter the country, and "the Premier believes (the facility) might also be valuable for travel for the unvaccinated," according to Emmy Kubainski, a manager of external relations and services in Palaszczuk’s office.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia has had strict, mandatory quarantine requirements for nearly all international travelers, and some states require quarantine for domestic travelers too. The country’s ports of entry are currently closed to everyone except citizens, permanent residents, their immediate family members and some travelers from New Zealand.

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Australia plans to start gradually easing its quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travelers beginning in November. The government’s transition plans suggest that unvaccinated people eventually will face different requirements than fully vaccinated people, and likely will have to quarantine when vaccinated people do not, when entering Australia and traveling within the country, but those requirements have not been defined.

Fact-checkers recently rated false a similar claim that Australians who are not fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by the end of the year will be put into isolation camps. The Australian Department of Health told the Australian Associated Press that quarantine facilities are "intended to support the quarantine of returning international travellers."

AAP reported, "In the future, vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers could face different quarantine requirements, but this wouldn’t mean unvaccinated people living in the country would be put in camps."

False claims about quarantine facilities as jails or punishment for the unvaccinated have also spread in the U.S. and Canada. The detention of regular citizens in government camps is a popular anti-government conspiracy theory.

A video post by The Charlie Kirk show said, "Australia to Implement Quarantine Camps for the Unvaxed."

The state of Queensland is building a quarantine facility intended for arriving travelers, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated.

In the future, the Australian government might impose different quarantine requirements on vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers, but unvaccinated people living in the country would not be put in camps.

The post falsely implies that anyone who is unvaccinated will be isolated based solely on their vaccination status. We rate this claim False.