Droopy eye repair among non urgent medical treatment provided to asylum seekers detained
Gemma Jones
Daily Telegraph
March 28, 201312:00AM
A PREGNANT asylum seeker deemed a security risk by ASIO was offered free domestic help and childcare while another detainee has had drooping eyelids fixed by taxpayers.
An array of non urgent medical treatment provided to detainees has been revealed including a suspected war criminal who had his impacted wisdom teeth removed at no cost to him.
Details of treatment were contained in Ombudsman's reports on long term detainees and come as the government announced the latest asylum boat detected yesterday had 147 passengers on board, the biggest arrival since October last year.
Most of the detainees who have been given everything from free glasses and orthotics to dietary counselling to combat high cholesterol, have been rejected as refugees and are exhausting appeals or have received a negative ASIO security assessment.
In August last year immigration official offered the pregnant 33-year-old, whose third son was born in January, free "domestic assistance, occasional childcare support and assistance with (her daily) routine" on the advice of an occupational therapist and a psychologist.
The woman, who had attended ante-natal appointments at Fairfield Hospital while living in residential housing in the Villawood complex, rejected the offer.
She and her two sons arrived by boat in May 2010 and were in community detention, where she married her husband in April last year, until her release was revoked in April after ASIO delivered an adverse security assessment.
A 27-year-old Tamil Tiger had his impacted wisdom teeth extracted in June at Whyalla in South Australia, two months after he complained of dental pain.
He has been in detention since arriving by boat in December 2009 and was rejected as a refugee after Department of Immigration officials found "serious reasons for considering (the man) had committed a war crime or a crime against humanity."
A Department spokesman declined to comment on the man's case.The 38-year-old with drooping eyelids overstayed a business visa before being rejected as a refugee, prompting attempts to remove him.
While he has been in detention in Sydney, the man has had three rounds of surgery between December 2009 and January 2011 to correct his eyelids.
A Department spokeswoman said surgery was never provided for "purely cosmetic reasons."
Other cases include a 35-year-old with two wives who has been treated for everything from hearing problems to reflux and insomnia since arriving by boat in 2009.
"These cases, especially that of that of a suspected war criminal will do more than test the patience of the Australian public," Opposition Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration said it had a "non delegable duty of care" to ensure the health and welfare of detainees and that care "is funded by the Australian Government."
She said treatment had to be clinically recommended by "health professionals such as GPs, dentists and medical specialists."
Meanwhile, the government is reportedly considering a plan to move families out of community detention onto bridging visas to save money in the May budget.
Families would be treated the same as single asylum seekers who receive about $440 a fortnight and some rent assistance to live in the community.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard would only say yesterday that a decision had not been taken.
97 asylum seekers caught Australia-bound by Sri Lanka
Daily Telegraph
March 27, 201310:33PM
SRI Lanka's navy says it has seized a fishing trawler carrying at least 97 asylum seekers on their way to Australia.
The boatload of migrants belonging to Sri Lanka's Tamil minority was intercepted at Oluvil off the country's eastern coast on Wednesday, navy spokesman Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya told AFP.
"In the arrested lot were 39 men, 18 women and also 40 children," Warnakulasuriya said.
They will be handed over to Sri Lankan police later in the day, he added.
Last year some 16,770 asylum seekers arrived on Australia's shores, with Sri Lankans the biggest group, numbering about 6360.
Hundreds have died making the treacherous journey over the past few years.
Canberra is struggling to contain the numbers and has set up processing centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
Sri Lankans pay up to $US3000 ($A2800) for a place on trawlers that take around two weeks to make the treacherous crossing to Australia. Some migrants travel by air to Indonesia and then take rickety wooden vessels to the Australian coast.
On Monday two people including a young child died when an asylum-seeker boat capsized. More than 90 were plucked to safety and taken ashore.
The payments are rich on refugee gravy boat
Gemma Jones
The Daily Telegraph
November 23, 2012 12:00AM
LARGE families released from immigration detention into the community on bridging visas will be entitled to more than $700 in equivalent welfare payments and rent assistance each fortnight.
A single parent with four or more children could receive as much as $706, the Department of Immigration confirmed yesterday.
The first boat to arrive since the government announced it was retreating from its policy to send asylum seekers to Nauru and Manus Island was intercepted on Wednesday.
Customs spotted a vessel with 37 asylum seekers and two crew southeast of Christmas Island. They will be among almost 7000 asylum seekers to have arrived since the offshore policy came into effect on August 13.
The latest arrivals can now be considered for release into the community, where they will be paid the equivalent of a welfare benefit, after the government backdown.
The government's policy reversal came after the flood of arrivals overwhelmed capacity offshore and in Australian detention centres.
All asylum seekers released into the community can be considered for 89 per cent of the Newstart allowance and 89 per cent of the applicable rent assistance offered by Centrelink.
In addition, free basic health care will be provided through the government's Asylum Seeker Assistance scheme and the Community Assistance Support program.
A department spokeswoman said the assistance could go as high as $700 in the cases of large families, but said usually only small family groupings arrived on boats, meaning they would be entitled to a lower rate of benefit and rent assistance.
The lowest rate for singles is about $440 a fortnight and they would also be eligible for a small amount of rent assistance of $72 if they are single and sharing a home, and $108 if they are single and living on their own.
The Red Cross has been the lead agency providing services to those in the community on bridging visas after Immigration Minister Chris Bowen announced last November at least 100 people a month would be released from detention. The number of asylum seekers on bridging visas had swelled to more than 5200 at the end of last week.
The department appointed an extra five service providers in August to work alongside the Red Cross, the department spokeswoman said.
New providers working with those on bridging visas include the Multicultural Development Association, Settlement Services International, Access Community Services, Adult Migration Education and the Migrant Resource Centre of SA.
Meanwhile, the government flew another charter jet to Colombo yesterday to return 40 Sri Lankans, taking the number of those returned to 466 since August 13.
"People who pay smugglers are risking their lives and throwing their money away," Mr Bowen said yesterday.
"There is no visa on arrival, no speedy outcome, and no special treatment."
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