Why leave paradise?

[village_person]

Manus Island detainees trade smokes, booze on black market

Taxpayers are footing a $1.5 million a week bill for meals, fishing trips, beach outings, visits to market and free packets of cigarettes for almost 900 male asylum seekers on Manus Island.

In a black market trade, detainees are selling their Australian taxpayer supplied cigarettes to locals in the town markets in exchange for money to buy marijuana, booze, smartphones and television sets.

Inside the Manus Island offshore regional processing centre in Papua New Guinea, known by locals as “little Australia”, they watch movies, are fed three meals a day, do gym sessions and take English and Tok Pisin (PNG national language) classes.

As about 150 detainees held a fourth day of protests against the “Manus Hell” of life inside the $600m facility, a News Corp investigation can reveal drug and alcohol abuse, black market activity, a cash-for-sex ....

Protest leader Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian Kurd, told how detainees are rewarded for going fishing, taking language classes, or trips to the beach with up to seven free packets of cigarettes a week.

They catch refugee shuttle buses into the main township of Lorengau where they sell the free cigarettes for $10 a packet, often more than 40 packets at a time, in the illicit trade at markets along the coconut palm-fringed shoreline.

[...]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/manus-island-detainees-trade-smokes-booze-on-black-marke...

**bleep**s are nearly $40 a pack in Oz so why in hell would an alleged refugee want to come to Oz? Life for an alleged refugee on Manus Island seems to be as close to ideal as possible.

[tezza2844]

'Protest leader Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian Kurd, told how detainees are rewarded for going fishing, taking language classes, or trips to the beach with up to seven free packets of cigarettes a week.

They catch refugee shuttle buses into the main township of Lorengau where they sell the free cigarettes for $10 a packet, often more than 40 packets at a time, in the illicit trade at markets along the coconut palm-fringed shoreline.'

Is this the so-called source:

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/contributor/behrouz-boochani http://

www.theage.com.au/comment/iranian-journalist-behrouz-boochani-tells-of-the-horrors-of-manus-island-o...

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/iranian-journalist-behrouz-boochani-tells-of-the-horrors-of-manus-i...

[***super_nova***]

You have really twisted view of what is paradise.  So what if they trade what ever rations they get for whatever else they want?  Obviously most people want more from life than what life in Manus camp offers.  People there risked their lives only to end up there with no future!  Many are educated professional people

from the above posted links:

"The men detained on Manus Island have not been convicted of any crime. Yet they are imprisoned. Isolated. Kept out of sight and out of mind. Those who have been found to be refugees remain in the Lorangau transit centre. They have not been resettled. The men know they are the fall guys, punished as a means of deterring other would-be asylum seekers, as are the men, women and children detained on Nauru. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They have been palmed off, abandoned and all but forgotten. They are being driven mad.

The fate of Behrouz Boochani and his fellow detainees is Australia's responsibility. Instead of being imprisoned and harassed, he should be welcomed for his courageous stand for democracy and granted asylum in Australia. It is a profound irony that he is now experiencing levels of surveillance and harassment that have some parallels with his treatment by Iranian authorities."

YES, it is scandal that we waste so much money on keeping them there; they could be released in Australia and given right to work. 

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/iranian-journalist-behrouz-boochani-tells-of-the-horrors-of-manus-i...
Follow us: @theage on Twitter | theageAustralia on Facebook

[icyfroth]

1. 

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@***super_nova*** wrote:

You have really twisted view of what is paradise.  So what if they trade what ever rations they get for whatever else they want?  Obviously most people want more from life than what life in Manus camp offers.  People there risked their lives only to end up there with no future!  Many are educated professional people.

from the above posted links:

"The men detained on Manus Island have not been convicted of any crime. Yet they are imprisoned.

Are they imprisoned though? My understanding is, they are free to leave. Just not for entry into Australia. Is imprisonment even the right term seeing  they can catch a bus into town to interact and trade with the locals.

Isolated. Kept out of sight and out of mind. Those who have been found to be refugees remain in the Lorangau transit centre. They have not been resettled. The men know they are the fall guys, punished as a means of deterring other would-be asylum seekers, as are the men, women and children detained on Nauru. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They have been palmed off, abandoned and all but forgotten. They are being driven mad.

Perhaps they should've tried entry through legal channels.

The fate of Behrouz Boochani and his fellow detainees is Australia's responsibility. Instead of being imprisoned and harassed, he should be welcomed for his courageous stand for democracy and granted asylum in Australia. It is a profound irony that he is now experiencing levels of surveillance and harassment that have some parallels with his treatment by Iranian authorities."

YES, it is scandal that we waste so much money on keeping them there; they could be released in Australia and given right to work. 

Providing they'd find work. How high is the unemployment rate in Australia? Would they fall onto our already strained welfare system?

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/iranian-journalist-behrouz-boochani-tells-of-the-horrors-of-manus-i...
Follow us: @theage on Twitter | theageAustralia on Facebook

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[the_great_she_elephant]

Can we infer from that that you wish you could trade places with them?

[village_person]

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

Can we infer from that that you wish you could trade places with them?

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I'm a non smoker so I have no need of free cigs.

[cmcoins2000]

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@village_person wrote:

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

Can we infer from that that you wish you could trade places with them?

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I'm a non smoker so I have no need of free cigs.

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Who quoted ' need ' .

They are selling them.

[village_person]

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@cmcoins2000 wrote:

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@village_person wrote:

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

Can we infer from that that you wish you could trade places with them?

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I'm a non smoker so I have no need of free cigs.

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Who quoted ' need ' .

They are selling them.

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Need, want, desire, crave, covet, hanker, hunger etc. I am a non smoker so I don't need 'em.

[lloydslights]

I question the idea of being given cigarettes as an incentive to attend language classes, fishing excursions, etc.  

In Australia, that is against the law.  

I can't find the PNG Laws, but I've read that they are valiantly trying  to stop the 40% of the population who do smoke, from doing so.  But they are up against illegal tobacco trading from Indonesia. 

Besides,  these people doing underhand-type deals want to come to Australia?  Not a good example of "good character" IMO.

DEB

[cmcoins2000]

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@village_person wrote:

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@cmcoins2000 wrote:

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@village_person wrote:

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

Can we infer from that that you wish you could trade places with them?

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I'm a non smoker so I have no need of free cigs.

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Who quoted ' need ' .

They are selling them.

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Need, want, desire, crave, covet, hanker, hunger etc. I am a non smoker so I don't need 'em.

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Dah - perhaps not all of them - need, crave, hunger - or whatever.

But will accept - to sell - for what it is they do want.

And I don't give a fig about your cravings, needs or for that matter wants.

Not a perfect world - what are you doing about it other than ??????????????????????