The NT Police Commissioner has asked for public empathy for three teenagers from a remote community who absconded from the Howard Springs quarantine, saying they likely felt isolated.
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The trio - aged 15, 16 and 17 - had been quarantining at the Howard Springs facility near Darwin because they were deemed close contacts of a COVID-19 case in the remote community of Binjari, near Katherine.
They jumped the facility's fence around 4.40am yesterday, resulting in a major police operation to find them, including police checking the cars of motorists in the area.
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Police found the trio on the outskirts of Palmerston, around 6km away, around 10am. It is believed that they got there on foot.
They were brought back to Howard Springs and their COVID tests, done yesterday, have come back negative.
Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker said while the behaviour was disappointing, it was likely a consequence of isolation.
"The reality is these are young people," he said.
"To move from remote communities where overcrowding is very present to being placed into a single room, and the isolation that they may feel.
"We're going to work with the health teams to understand whether we can cohort some of them to try and break down some of that loneliness that may be a trigger to it [absconding]."
The trio will each be fined $5056 each for breaching the directions of the Chief Health Officer.
It comes less than a week after a 27-year-old was fined for scaling the fence and escaping Howard Springs before being found in a Darwin bar, leading to questions about the facility's security.
"We've already bolstered additional resources but...when you're dealing with 165 acres, you have to build a bridge of trust with people," Commissioner Chalker said.
"There's not barbed wire on this facility. It's not a detention center. It is a quarantine facility and it should be ample...for people to know the risk that they pose by leaving that facility."
Commissioner Chalker said he believes the absconder from last week may have influenced the teenagers.
"That adult male probably sowed the seed in their minds," he said.
"The message to everyone is please don't leave, it's such a big risk for the Northern Territory."
