In October 2010 ChilOut was told – women at the ASTI have been waiting 6 months for… knickers- yes underwear. Many women had only one pair of pants – the one they came off the boat wearing. Many times advocates asked – why can’t you walk them 5 minutes down the road to the k-mart and let them choose 6 pairs of knickers. No, SERCO have some central “cheap” supply somewhere which took six months to provide. Ten days ago the women were given- wait for it- YES 3 KNICKERS EACH. oh the generosity- the largesse!
The women at the ASTI are required to go to the office and line up and ask for SANITARY NAPKINS on the day that they start to bleed- not before. They are then given 6 napkins- not a packet but 6. They can ask for more as needed. At night only male officers are on duty so if the need them during the evening shift they must ask these men.ChilOut’s Jessica wrote to her MP Tanya Plibersek, and she recieved this response from the Minister. It basically says that he asked Serco if they were doing their job, and they said “sure we are!” And the Minister has taken that at face value. Hmmm. Not sure about the quality of that investigation.
This is what Australians pay for; detention centres with gross abuses
