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.

[cmcoins2000]

Forgive me - whenever I see your avi - I see Cramer.

Much as I love him - he does have the capacity to annoy.

[imastawka]

Strange,  I see Austen Tashus

[cmcoins2000]

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@imastawka wrote:

Strange,  I see Austen Tashus

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Perhaps your placky eyes are better than my placky eyes.

[imastawka]

It's neither of those guys.

But he sure has big teeth

[cmcoins2000]

While I am here - I must admit I get - oh - so tired of this ongoing argument.

These people have come - without papers - without passports - etc etc etc.

Everyone talks about - processing them.

Yep - all good - when there is something to process.

The fact of the matter is - no papers  - no proof of identity - even returning them to their said country of origin - hey.

They have no papers - they can't even prove where they came from - let alone where they want to go to.

Those countries will no longer accept these people either - it has been tried.

Hi profile refugees - different story.

Get on a boat - any boat - take your chances.

[the_great_she_elephant]

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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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So can we infer that that, since you don't need cigarettes to smoke,  selling them would be your idea of paradise. 

[the_great_she_elephant]

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

My Dad spent 3 years as a POW during the war. andduring that time he regularly bartered cigarettes (supplied by the Red Cross) with the cards for little extra '"uxuries"

Should I infer from this that he was "Not a good example of "good character"

[cmcoins2000]

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

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

  wa

My Dad spent 3 years as a POW during the war. andduring that time he regularly bartered cigarettes (supplied by the Red Cross) with the cards for little extra '"uxuries"

Should I infer from this that he was "Not a good example of "good character"

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Those men She - yours & mine - did what they had to do to survive.

No comparison - and with all due respect - they have nothing to do with this carp.

[the_great_she_elephant]

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@cmcoins2000 wrote:

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@the_great_she_elephant wrote:

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

  wa

My Dad spent 3 years as a POW during the war. andduring that time he regularly bartered cigarettes (supplied by the Red Cross) with the cards for little extra '"uxuries"

Should I infer from this that he was "Not a good example of "good character"

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Those men She - yours & mine - did what they had to do to survive.

No comparison - and with all due respect - they have nothing to do with this carp.

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He was a prisoner of the Germans, not the Japanese, so although rations were pretty meagre  towards the end of the ar he was never literally struggling for survival.  In fact, in trading cigarettes,  he was doing exactly what the internees on Manus are doing.

[lloydslights]

She-El your dad was fortunate to get the Red Cross packs.

Not so, for many camps in Japan.  

Some Japanese POWs sold out their 'mates' for a bowl of rice.  

Not that this has anything to do with Manus Island 

DEB