$23,000 per day, medical services not included
"Medical care in detention centres is still substandard, and is not at all confined to a period in the past past, when
more boatpeople than ever before came to Australia, as former Immigration Minister Ruddock alleged on ABC's AM program
this morning."
"Project SafeCom has been able to confirm with friends of Mr Aladdin Sisalem, who is being held at the Lombrun
processing centre on Manus Island at a daily cost to the Australian taxpayer of $23,000, that he has not received any
form of medical care for more than eight months, even while he has repeatedly requested to see a doctor - while he feels
he has serious medical problems."
"Mr Sisalem has also reported that he is served just ONE meal per day in the last eight months, and he claims that these
meals are of inferior quality, while he also suspects that the standard meals "of frozen chicken" are past the due-by
date."
"The lone asylum seeker has also reported to advocates that his gums are bleeding every time he tries to eat - a symptom
also associated with severe vitamin deficiency - and he has stopped eating. He also suffers from reoccurring stomach
pains."
"Before the doctor 'was removed from the centre', according to Adelaide advocate Mr Matt Hamon, Mr Sisalem was assessed
as suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome. Mr Hamon has written to the shadow immigration Minister
Stephen Smith and Dr Carmen Lawrence."
"The Howard government is continually in breach of minimum standards of medical care, and is guilty of serious medical
neglect. The fact that it contracts outside agents, in this case the International Organisation of Migration, for
medical care of detainees does not put the blame away from their deliberate treatment of human beings as if they are
worse than dogs."
ENDS