Australian government to pay compensation to 'detained' asylum seekers
The Australian government is paying compensation to a group of refugees sent to a camp outside the country.
Australia's immigration department has said the government is prepared to pay a total of $70 million to 1,905 asylum seekers sent to the Manus Island camp in Papua New Guinea.
Australian (about $53 million). These people were sent to Manus Island in Papua New Guinea as part of the Australian government's policy of sending refugees to camps outside the country while their asylum applications are processed.
The lawsuit was filed against the Australian government and its contractor for the management of the Manus camp.
This group of refugees filed a complaint in Australian courts, saying that they "suffered physical and psychological harm and pressure" while staying in the camp between 2012 and 2016, and they held the Australian government responsible.
By accepting the government's settlement offer, the plaintiffs must withdraw their lawsuit and the lawsuit will not proceed. The case was due to officially begin in the Supreme Court of Victoria today, Wednesday, June 14, but before the trial officially began, government lawyers offered to pay compensation to avoid entering into the legal battle.
They have also said that the government is prepared to cover the costs of filing and pursuing the complaint to this stage, which has amounted to more than 20 million Australian dollars.
Details of the government's settlement offer have not yet been released, and the court has not ruled on its acceptability, but one of the plaintiffs' lawyers said that receiving the compensation would help his clients "put this painful chapter of their lives behind them."
The Australian Department of Immigration has "strongly" denied any wrongdoing, saying the decision to settle with the claimants was a prudent one, both financially and to avoid a lengthy legal battle. The Immigration Minister said the allegations about poor conditions at the Manus Island camp were unfounded and that the Australian government had always done everything it could to ensure the conditions for asylum seekers sent there were adequate.
This case attracted widespread media attention, and the judicial proceedings, which certainly included descriptions of the camp's conditions from the plaintiffs' perspective, were certainly widely covered in the media.
The Manus Island camp was created as part of an Australian government policy to deal with the influx of asylum seekers who arrived by boat to Australia and sought asylum. Under the policy, the Australian government sent these people to detention centers outside the country, where they were effectively held until their asylum claims were processed.
The Australian government has said that the McManus camp will close in October this year.
Source: BBC
