An escalating COVID-19 outbreak inside a Melbourne hotel used to detain asylum seekers and refugees was a "completely foreseeable event" that could have been prevented, says a lawyer representing them.
Twenty-two of the 46 men detained inside the Park Hotel have become infected with the virus and one is being treated in hospital.
Some have spent almost two years inside the hotel after being brought to Australia from Manus Island or Nauru for medical treatment under the medevac scheme in 2019.
"The incursion of the COVID Delta strain into the Park Hotel is a completely foreseeable event," Asylum Seeker Resource Centre principal solicitor Carolyn Graydon told AAP.
"The government's had 18 months that it's known people held in closed detention spaces like the Park Hotel are at a particular risk, due to their inability to social distance and based on the conditions they're living in.
"The government, unlike other Western countries, refuses to accept high level advice from international and national public health officials."
The Park Hotel is being used as an alternative place of detention by Australian Border Force.
Ms Graydon said it was intended as a short-term solution but had "mutated and stretched the legal bounds" of its purpose.
"These ad hoc hotel detention centres are not designed for holding people for long periods and just do not have the facilities to do so humanely - even in a pre-COVID environment," she said.
Clients have told her about an "appalling lack of compliance" with health directions inside.
Cleaners stopped visiting last week and ventilation is lacking, with detainees not allowed to open windows. An air purifier was recently given to each person to help with air circulation.
Open stairwell doors and an "absolutely filthy" communal kitchen area have all helped the virus infect more people, she said.
"It just shows a complete ambivalent lack of care for these men," Ms Graydon said.
"They've described ABF officers telling them, 'It's just inevitable that you're going to get it (COVID-19), there's nothing you can do and nothing we can do'. It's a complete dereliction of duty."
For weeks refugee advocates have been calling for the immediate release all 46 detainees and protesting outside the facility.
Ms Graydon said the minister overseeing those detained has "plenty of options" to release them, including by granting them protection in Australia, a bridging visa or community detention.
Members of the community have even offered to house the men, in isolated ways.
However after dealing with three different federal ministers since March, she says there's "a lack of clarity" around who is responsible for the medevac detainees.
"It seems nobody really wants to deal with this mess, no one seems to mind the continuing cost of this policy," she said.
Dozens have been released from detention since December 2020 but Ms Graydon says it's not clear how and why decisions are made.
"It's been hugely frustrating for everybody because we cannot see clear patterns either in terms of who the minister is choosing to release and who he or she has not released," she said.
The Park Hotel detainees are particularly vulnerable as they battle medical problems like diabetes, heart disease and respiratory conditions.
After years in detention, mental health among them is rapidly deteriorating.
"There's absolutely no excuse for why these men have not been provided with the proper medical care that they were transferred for here in the first place," Ms Graydon said.
AAP has contacted the ABF, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews and Immigration Minister Alex Hawke for comment.
