OZschwitz gulag is the only country to charge immigration detainees for their cases

WHEN refugee Kasian Wililo heard the Government was cancelling his $160,000 detention debt, he felt like a gun had been lowered from his head.

For 2½ years the 29-year-old Tanzanian was locked up in the Baxter and Maribyrnong detention centres unaware he would be billed for the process. But the full-time factory worker's relief has turned to anguish as the Coalition prepares to oppose in the Senate a plan by the Federal Government to forgive the debts.

Australia is the only country to charge immigration detainees for their cases. At present 466 people owe the Immigration Department $8.7 million to cover food, accommodation and transport costs.

Under a plan announced by the Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, in March, the debts would be forgiven.

Mr Wililo and his Australian wife, Emily, have a $360,000 mortgage to pay off in Padstow, two boys and a baby due in October.

"It's just insulting on so many levels," Mrs Wililo, 29, said. "It's not just a financial argument we have. It's a moral issue."

Mr Wililo fled political persecution as a stowaway on a ship bound for Norway. He arrived in Australia in 2002 and stayed in Maribyrnong a year before a transfer to Baxter in March 2004.

"They locked him up in a paddy wagon and drove him 10 hours across the desert in the middle of the night," Mrs Wililo said.

"They didn't stop to offer him any drink or food or a toilet break."

But he is on a temporary spouse visa, and having a debt to the Government will prevent him from coming back to Australia if he decides to travel.

The Opposition spokeswoman on immigration, Sharman Stone, said abolishing detention debts would be "another advertisement" to people smugglers.

A Department of Immigration spokesman said pursuing debts was uneconomical. In the two years to June 30 last year only 3.3 per cent of a detention debt of $54.3 million was recovered.

LNK

OZschwitz gulag is the only country to charge immigration detainees for their cases

OZschwitz gulag is the only country to charge immigration detainees for their cases

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