THE mental health cost of mandatory detention will be $25,000 for each asylum seeker, says a Church report.
THE lifetime mental health cost of mandatory detention will be $25,000 for each asylum seeker, a Catholic Church report estimates.
Centacare Catholic Family Services director Dale West said detaining asylum seekers for long periods exacerbated the trauma and mental-health problems with which most arrived in this country.
"Uncertainty for human beings is like a psychological cancer," he said.
The link between long-term mandatory detention of asylum seekers and mental health problems has been documented but a new report by the Yarra Institute for Religion and Social Policy has "conservatively" estimated the lifetime mental health costs.
Mr West said the process of locking up asylum seekers for unknown periods further traumatised asylum seekers, more than 80 per cent of whom become Australian citizens.
The report says mental health treatment costs about 50 per cent more than regular medical treatment and once asylum seekers are assimilated into Australian society, their medical costs are paid for by taxpayers.
"So why would you, at the political end, and for deterrence, cause people those extra health problems when it's going to cost you to support them and to provide the health support services into the future?" he said. Mr West welcomed asylum seekers being detained at Inverbrackie but said asylum seekers still had no idea how long they would be kept there.
"From a Christian point of view, it's about how we treat one another and if we were in a circumstance where we were fleeing terror ... we wouldn't hope to be treated by being stuck in a detention centre and left there for four or five years," he said. "It's about respecting the dignity of each human being regardless of their race and, simply put, we're not doing that."
The report says the immigration system has wide health checks for migrants seeking to come to Australia to protect public expenditure on health and community services.
"Mandatory detention of asylum seekers has the direct effect of increasing public expenditure on health and community services," it said. "The Federal Government can save long-term health costs of a similar magnitude by minimising the time in detention."
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