The private company that runs Australia's immigration detention camps has been fined and police are investigating several employees over the mistreatment of five detainees, reports said yesterday.
An independent investigation found the detainees were manhandled, denied food, water and toilet facilities, and had their pleas for help ignored during a seven-hour transfer by road from one detention center to another last year.
`outrageous'
The company, Global Solutions Limited (GSL), was fined A500,000 (US$378,286) for treatment that Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone described as "outrageous."
"I'm outraged at the treatment of detainees or any human beings in this way," Vanstone said.
But the opposition Labor Party said the government's harsh policies towards illegal immigrants and the fact that it had contracted the running of detention camps to a private company were to blame.
"To have the detention centers managed by a private company whose experience is in managing prisons and who had staffed the detention centers with prison guards has led to this outrageous abuse," he said.
"The treatment of these asylum seekers by this company is a blot on Australia's international reputation for being a nation of civilized human beings."
GSL said in a statement that two managers named in the report had resigned and the company was considering disciplinary action against any other officers involved in the escort.
Australia's detention policy has faced strong criticism, and in June Prime Minister John Howard was forced to soften it to prevent a backbench revolt.
Children and their families as well as long-term detainees who cannot be returned to their country of origin can now be released into the community while their cases are processed, and on Friday the last 48 minors were freed.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of