The Wire

Asylum seekers are paying for their own detention, even when they’ve been classified as genuine refugees. This is not a new occurance, since the Migration Act of 1958 all “non citizens” have to repay the government the costs of their detention. But as mandatory detention periods have grown to several years, the burden of repayment has reached astonishing heights, with one family incurring $340,000.00 worth of debt.