Hotels and apartments for illegal boat people medical treatment cost $1.4BN
Monday, 17 December 2018
This comes courtesy of the Daily Mail - the photos from Christmas Island came to us from Shaz of CI and were first published here on this website.
I can think of at least one Australian war veteran who lives overseas but has to return for medical treatment who will be fuming over this.
Asylum seekers flown to Australia for medical treatment are put up in $300-a-night hotels and serviced apartments costing the taxpayer $1.4billion
- About 1500 asylum seekers have been put up in luxury hotels in Australia
- Asylum seekers, usually held on Manus or Nauru, were here for medical attention
- The cost of housing them and their families in this accommodation is $1.4billion
The government has spent more than a billion dollars on housing asylum seekers who have been flown to Australia for medical treatment and put up in luxury hotels.
In the past five years, The Daily Telegraph reports the government has paid $1.4billion to accommodate people being flown over from offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru.
Some are held in high-end hotels, such as the Meriton and the Medina, while others stay in guarded townhouses, which cost about $4000 per month.
The hotels, which can cost more than $300 a night, have been home to one asylum seeker for nearly three years, but stays can range from one day to 1096.
Asylum seekers arriving by boat are being held in luxury apartments when they are flown from Manus Island or Nauru to Australia for medical treatment
In the last five years, about 1500 individuals and family members held at offshore detention centres (pictured) were taken to Australia for treatment, with some staying in $300-a-night hotels while in the country
One room at the Meriton Parramatta in Sydney's west reportedly used to home asylum seekers receiving medical treatment and their families contains a flat-screen TV, unlimited Wi-Fi and a full kitchen and laundry.
About 1500 individuals and family members who were living on Manus and Nauru have been flown to Australia for medical treatment in the last five years.
Luxury accommodation has not been provided to everyone, however. Those believed to pose a risk to the community are held in onshore detention centres.
Of those flown to Australia, The Daily Telegraph reports just over a third were not found to be genuine refugees.
The revelations come as Labor announced it would back a plan to allow asylum seekers into the country for treatment with the sign-off of two doctors – a softer approach than is currently taken.
Meriton and Medina hotels are often used to house asylum seekers, with some rooms costing up to $300-a-night (pictured is a room from the Meriton in Parramatta, which is understood to have been used to house an asylum seeker receiving medical treatment)
The living conditions are significantly better than those experienced in the Nauru and Manus offshore detention centres
Some asylum seekers are also homed in $4000-a-month guarded townhouses
The party is hoping to end Australia's current policy of detaining asylum seekers who arrive via boat offshore indefinitely, but has not announced an official policy to do so.