FED:Detainees could be released to work: Bowen

AAP General News (Australia)
02-10-2011
FED:Detainees could be released to work: Bowen

By Adam Gartrell

CANBERRA, Feb 10 AAP - Asylum seekers could be released from immigration detention
to help with the Brisbane flood clean-up.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says detainees have told him they want to help and
it would be "churlish" to just say no.

Detainees could do small things like grow trees which could be used in landscaping
as part of the rebuilding effort, Mr Bowen said.

"And there might be the odd occasion where under appropriate supervision and appropriate
security some of our detainees in Brisbane ... might go out for a little bit of time and
help with a bit of work here and there cleaning up," he told Fairfax Radio on Thursday.

Detainees would not be paid and they would not put anyone else out of work.

People in detention centres were asking was there anything they could do to help, Mr Bowen said.

"I think we should be looking at options to make that happen if it is at all possible."

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the government was simply trying
to relieve pressure on its overcrowded detention system.

"What Chris Bowen is saying is that the government's detention system can no longer
cope," he told Sky News.

"What we're seeing here is the first stage of this government walking away from detention
more broadly."

AAP ag/rl

KEYWORD: FLOODS QLD DETAINEES

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