Australia: Perks could be better, say asylum-seekers

[peter000]

Perks could be better, say asylum-seekers

By Padraic Murphy and Stephen McMahon
From: Herald Sun March 31, 2010 3:53am

Perks could be better, say asylum-seekers | News.com.au

SUSPECTED illegal immigrants held in detention in Melbourne enjoy an array of taxpayer-financed perks, including internet access, a DVD library and a gym. But detainees at the Maribyrnong Detention Centre yesterday said the food is poor, the DVDs are a decade old, and XBox games are damaged and in short supply.

"In my section there is only one XBox cricket game. People stopped playing it months ago," one detainee told the Herald Sun.

"The internet hardly ever works, and is heavily restricted anyway."

Detainees organise regular volleyball matches, tend the centre's small vegetable patch and hold weekly barbecues. Meals are prepared by a staff cook, although many detainees prefer to cook for themselves.

"The food is not very good," said Xiang Ye, a 21-year-old Chinese national who has been locked up for three months and expects to be in Maribyrnong for at least another six months.

"It's usually peaceful, but it's very difficult to find things to do."

Others spend their time taking classes.

"I'm trying to take English lessons," said Ali Al-Mashaou, an Iraqi who arrived three months ago on a false passport and is seeking asylum.

"I exercise in the gym and try to talk to people and make friends."

The Maribyrnong centre costs $12.3 million a year to run. There have been 13 escapes in the past five years and only three have been found. Across the nation, there have been 81 escapes from detention centres since July 2004. Forty-five remain at large.

Latest figures show the Maribyrnong Detention Centre is holding 33 men and eight women, including one Vietnamese detainee who has been there for two years.

The Federal Government says almost three-quarters of people placed in detention are kicked out of Australia within two weeks. But those forced to stay longer complain about poor conditions.

Although the Maribyrnong Detention Centre is at less than half of its capacity, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said there had been no discussions with the Victorian Government about using it to house the asylum-seekers from overflowing Christmas Island.

"We have no such plans," he said.

[taxexile]

The Maribyrnong centre costs $12.3 million a year to run.

12.3 mill aus$ ?

thats peanuts. dont be so tight with your scroungers
we brits give 5 mill uk pounds alone just to one single mother and her 3 kids.

£5million: The extraordinary sum it can cost the taxpayer to support a single mother of three on benefits



By Steve Doughty
Last updated at 1:59 AM on 31st March 2010



A single broken family can cost the taxpayer more than £5million to keep, a devastating analysis of the benefits system shows.
The scale of spending on benefits, care and attempts to help a mother and her children would swallow a big lottery win, according to the figures drawn up by local authority chiefs.
The extreme case study - which would not apply to most lone-parent families but to a significant minority - suggests that ordinary people are paying a vast price for 'broken Britain' and its legion of families whose every requirement is paid for by the state.

A lifetime on welfare: 'Lizzie' and her three children would cost £5million to look after over their lives

The £5,782,894 price tag comes on a family led by an abused single mother - herself brought up in care - who has three children.
The case study assumes that neither the mother nor the three children ever work, and the children, like the mother, spend long periods living in state care.
It puts the cost of providing for the mother - who they called Lizzie - at £805,000 up to the age of 18.
Lizzie then costs almost £100,000 for the following two years, during which there are attempts to help her find a job.
She has three children, each of whom spends nine years of their childhood either in council-run homes or with foster parents.

The cost of supporting a workless Lizzie from the age of 20 to her retirement at 65, plus the three children, is calculated at just under £4.9million.
The total comes to roughly £5.8million.




Leaders of Barnet Council in North London, who drew up the example, say - although extreme - it is an illustration of what the state spends on a family in total breakdown.
The analysis also makes the point that where the head of a family has never worked, there is a 'very high likelihood' that the children will not work either. The costs do not include the price to the taxpayer of education or health services.
They also do not take into account police and criminal justice costs of a family involved in antisocial behaviour and crime.




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1262425/5million-The-extraordinary-sum-cost-taxpayer-support-single-mother-benefits.html#ixzz0jiC1lZw8

[peter000]

^At least they are your own citizens, not whining immigration-queue jumpers.

[AntRobertson]

The case study assumes that neither the mother nor the three children ever work

Rather large assumption to make. In fact there are so many holes in those 'calculations' that it's difficult to know where to begin.

[taxexile]

Rather large assumption to make. In fact there are so many holes in those 'calculations' that it's difficult to know where to begin.

please dont use facts to derail a right wing rant

[AntRobertson]

Oops, my apologies!

[Cenovis]

To late for me (not British anyway), however would they do a one off payment?

[dirtydog]

"The food is not very good,"

Must be bad, this is from a couple of months back



Taylors Lakes resident Ziad Chebib, released from the Maribyrnong Detention Centre yesterday after six days, has vowed to maintain a hunger strike.

[Cujo]

if they don't like the conditions they could always go home.

[Bower]

Seems to me that some of these detention centre management should be sent to the UK for some training. Cant have disgruntled asylum seekers can we ?