Medevac asylum seekers detained in a Melbourne hotel for months | _biancah noeltowell
More than 45 men, formerly held in the Manus Island centre, are now confined to one floor of the $180-a-night Mantra on Bell in Preston, which is off limits to other guests and patrolled by private security guards.
Those laws were repealed this month by the government, which argued the system weakened Australia's offshore detention system and set a "very low bar" for asylum seekers to get to Australia from PNG or Nauru. "Accommodation decisions are made on a case-by-case basis but, where appropriate, detainees may be placed in accommodation that is not within an immigration detention facility," the spokesperson said.under medevac provisions have been sent to hotels, apartments and detention facilities across the country.
Mantra guests are forbidden to use the gym for two hours a day, while medevac refugees are using the facilities. "Everyone that is here is because of medevac and everyone has a different story," he said. "My problem, apart from mental problems, I have physical problems. I have asthma. I have [been] traumatised terribly ... I was beaten terribly. I have PTSD."
Local federal Labor MP Ged Kearney said she had sought more information from the government about why the men were being kept in a motel in her electorate, but had been unable to get answers.
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