Charities say they are being overwhelmed with pleas for help from asylum seekers who are released from detention without enough to live on.
Charities say they are being overwhelmed with pleas for help from asylum seekers who are released from detention without enough to live on.
Record numbers of boat arrivals have blown out the Government’s asylum seeker budget by more than $3.2 billion.
Since August, more than 18,000 asylum seekers have arrived by boat and that means the Government had to find more money in Tuesday’s Federal Budget to process and house them.
To relieve the financial pressure, the Government is releasing more family groups into the community on bridging visas, with 89 per cent on the lowest Centrelink payment to cover rent, food, household items and medicine.
Many of the asylum seekers have been released from detention centres and placed on bridging visas in the community while they wait for their claims to be decided.
Asylum seekers get just over $400 a fortnight to live on and they are not allowed to work or study and their numbers are growing.
They start lining up in search of food and blankets the moment the Salvation Army centre in inner Melbourne opens each weekday morning.
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