The Immigration Department and health services authorities in Sydney are reportedly to be treating a detainee from the Villawood Detention Centre, suffering from leprosy, as NSW Health expressed that the detainee presents no risk to other detainees or staff because the disease can be treated with antibiotics.

Though staff and detainees are being counseled, the health authorities have stated it would not be necessary moving them, as Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said that he has been told that the spreading of the leprosy infection is "very, very low".

He further stated that the patient is in the care of the Immigration Department and NSW Health, as well as being sure that the disease will not be transmitted to anyone else.

Also, the Opposition Immigration Spokesman Scott Morrison expressed that the department needed to enlighten people on how the case of leprosy occurred in the detention center.

However, he said, "I think it's only reasonable for the Australian people to be assured that those who arrive illegally by boat when transferred to a mainland detention centre are clear of communicable diseases such as leprosy".

Moreover, the Australian detention centers are reported to be “under pressure due to an influx of more than 6,000 boatpeople in 2010, leading to criticisms that they are overcrowded and conditions unsatisfactory”.