Private Prison for Asylum Seekers on Pacific Island
►http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15784
Transfield Services, an Australian logistics company that provides services to the mining and oil industry among others, has won a A$24.5 million (US$25.9 million) contract from the government of Australia to run a detention center for asylum seekers in the Pacific island nation of Nauru.
In 2007 the Nauru detention center was shut down by the newly elected Labor government of Kevin Rudd as part of a plan to phase out the Pacific Solution as “costly, unsustainable, and wrong.” This policy was reversed last month by Rudd’s successor Julia Gillard, also from the Labor party, who announced a A$900 million (US$951.5 million) deal with Papua New Guinea and a A$2 billion (US$2.11 billion) deal with Nauru to accept new detainees.
Amnesty Australia began a petition to question the new policy. “Last time Australia sent asylum seekers to Nauru, conditions were so bad that a child swallowed a lightbulb to try and end his own life. Why will this time be any different?” the human rights group wrote.
In a bid to respond to these questions, the government has announced that it will pay the Salvation Army to provide counseling and recreation activities for asylum seekers.
#demandeurs_d'asile #Australie #rétention_privée #business #mauvais_traitement