Apologies. My e-mail program has mangled the attributions of the quoted
paragraphs. Here again:
Josephine
> > > At 8:44 AM +1100 22/1/2002, Printmaker wrote:
> > > >In the meantime they are being fed and housed and protected
> > > >from harm all at the expense of the Australian public purse.
Alison
> > > "Protected from harm" - ? There are at least two documented cases of
> > > suspected child sexual abuse in these detention centres. The social
> > > workers who are allowed in are constantly saying that the conditions
> > > under which asylum seekers are kept are damaging to mental health.
Josephine> > No worse than the way we treat our own mentally ill or
> > children in protective custody - I just see here another
> > opportunity cost, we could be remedying that instead.
me
> There are surely other sources of funding for the mentally ill or children
> in protective custody.
> The state, having placed these people in detention centres now have a duty
> of care towards them. This is obviously true in the case of the minors,
but
> no less so in the case of the adults. No amount of blame levelled at the
> asylum seekers can remove that duty. And it is clearly not being
discharged.
> Not by a long chalk.
>
>
> Randolph
>
>
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