Claims asylum seekers exploited in detention centres

CANBERRA - Asylum seekers are being paid as little as A$1 ($1.10) an hour for work in detention centres in what a lawyer says could be a breach of the Migration Act.

David Mann, a lawyer from Melbourne's Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, said the detainees were being exploited.

"The private contractor is paid handsomely, over A$100 million a year to provide these very core services, and what we're seeing here is people in detention routinely performing those services," he told ABC radio.

"What we know is that in some circumstances at least, they're being paid as low as A$1 an hour."

Such practices could be a breach of the Migration Act, which contains a clause preventing unlawful non-citizens from being paid for work, Mr Mann said.

He called for an inquiry into the matter.

"We need an urgent investigation into the exact amount of these figures and what they represent and whether or not the private contractor is in fact profiteering from all of this," Mr Mann said.

A man who spent four months this year at the Curtin detention centre, a remote facility in Western Australia's far north, said he was paid A$2 an hour to teach English to other detainees.

"For the English teacher work I was offered payment for that," he told ABC radio.

"I was first told (I was) to be paid A$4 per hour, but I got only A$2 per hour when they paid me the money, so I was angry about that."

While no money actually changed hands, he said the money was put into an account for him but he received nothing when he left the facility.

The man, who is now an Australian citizen, also said his friend was paid A$1 an hour to teach computer programming at the detention centre.

In a statement released to the ABC, the Immigration Department said the detainees were not paid wages, with any money used as a merit point system while they were detained.

But the department also said the private contractors which run immigration detention centres should ensure they have adequate staffing levels and should not be relying on detainees to perform work.

Mr Mann's claims follow those by Unions NSW yesterday that staff at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre paid a detainee with cigarettes and telephone cards to carry out their work.

- AAP