Multi-million dollar racism

The Federal Government's xenophobia appears to have no limits. 
Australia is maintaining its refugee detention centre on Manus 
Island at a cost of $716,000 per month to detain just one asylum 
seeker.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has defended the cost as 
"cheap at the price".

According to a spokesperson for Minister Vanstone's department, 
the spending was necessary because the centre needed to be kept 
in a state of "operational readiness".

Aladdin Sisalem, a Palestinian refugee from Kuwait has been 
detained alone on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, since July 
2003. All the other asylum seekers have long had their claims 
processed and departed.

Like many other asylum seekers Mr Sisalem arrived by boat. 
However, unlike most other boat arrivals he landed within 
Australia's migration zone — he actually set foot on Australian 
soil at Sabai Island in Torres Straight.

Yet Mr Sisalem was still detained and deported on a technicality.

As his lawyer, Eric Vadarlis, explained to The 7.30 Report: "He 
forgot to ask for a form, according to the Government.

"He should have said, 'I seek asylum and can I please have form 
X'. And because he was not given the form X, because he didn't 
ask for it, they summarily took him, put him on a plane and took 
him off to Manus Island."

Mr Sisalem has officially been declared a refugee by the United 
Nations Human Rights Commission with a spokesperson for UNHCR 
confirming: " as a Palestinian outside his place of residence, Mr 
Sisalem is a refugee".

An Immigration Detention fact sheet on Minister Vanstone's own 
webpage clearly states: "Those who are found to be refugees are 
released from detention immediately, subject to health and 
character requirements".

Yet the Government washes its hands on yet another technicality. 
Australia's obligation under the United Nations Convention on 
Refugees only extends as far as not forcibly deporting him to 
places where he faces or may face persecution.

This means, according to Senator Vanstone: "Asylum seekers do not 
have the right to select the country in the world that will hear 
their claim and they do not have the right to select the country 
in the world where they will be resettled".

And so, a victim of the Government's continuing and deepening 
racism, Mr Sisalem sits alone behind barbed wire on a far-flung 
tropical island.

The Australian people continue to pay the wages of four staff 
from the International Organisation for Migration and the 30 
guards contracted to watch Mr Sisalem's every move, 24 hours a 
day.

Along with Mr Sisalem Australia continues to detain 977 refugees 
at similar camps and centres all over the Australian continent 
and throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The Immigration department recently, and proudly, announced a new 
facility is planned for Brisbane.