Australia’s ‘cruel’ refugee policy costs $1.2 billion
February 8, 2015 03:08 pm
Australia’s government has spent more than $1.2 billion in one year to run its contentious offshore detention centers for asylum seekers, implementing what human rights lawyer David Manne told The Anadolu Agency is a “cruel’ and “flawed” policy.
World Bulletin news agency said in a report that Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island detention center, which currently holds 1035 male asylum seekers, and has been a hotbed of unrest and protests, cost $437.6 million to run.
Transfers between both islands and Colombo in Sri Lanka during 2013/14, facilitated by the Australian Federal Police, also cost about $8.3 million.
The detention center on Christmas Island, meanwhile, cost $318 million to operate.
Documents released this week show that during the last financial year, detention centers on Manus Island, Nauru and Christmas Island cost the Australian taxpayer dearly to stop asylum seeker boats heading to the mainland.
Manne, executive director of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, maintains there is a cheaper and better way “and it wouldn’t include spending that sort of money on destroying innocent human beings.”
Fairfax reports that during the last financial year, the Immigration Department spent $474.1 million to operate the offshore processing center on Nauru, which accommodates 895 people, including children and family groups. This figure included health care services, welfare services, food supplies and security.
According to Manne, what Australians are getting for $1.2 billion is a “deterrence factor”, which “does nothing to address the root cause of why people are fleeing or their desperation.”
