Mental health worries over asylum-seeker

The Department of Corrections is to review how Algerian asylum-seeker Ahmed Zaoui is managed in prison following a psychological report that found his mental health is suffering.

The Public Prisons Service said the report blamed the conditions of his incarceration and the fact he had been held in Auckland Prison at Paremoremo for 10 months.

The review would involve liaising with police and the Immigration Service and would include consideration of how often Mr Zaoui could have visitors.

But the department could not rescind the decision to detain him in prison.

- NZPA