Former Manus Island detainees paid $70 million in compensation

The $70 million in compensation under Australia's largest human rights class action settlement has been paid out.

 Image of Asylum seekers staring at media from behind a fence at the Oscar compound in the Manus Island detention centre, Papua New Guinea.

Most of the 1700 people sharing in the settlement have already received their money. Source: AAP

The $70 million in compensation under Australia's largest human rights class action settlement has been paid to former Manus Island detainees.

Most of the 1700 people sharing in the settlement have already received their money.

The final payments are being sent to the remaining 340 former detainees, with that process expected to be completed over the next week.
The Victorian Supreme Court is expected to issue the final orders to officially end the three-and-a-half-year legal action before June 30.

The court on Wednesday heard a representative for two class action group members raised concerns overnight, although at this stage the complaints were not expected to delay the finalisation of the case.

Barrister Melanie Szydzik said one of the complaints involved an exchange rate issue.

She said the second person complained they did not get their money and suggested there may have been a mistake possibly involving the payment going to the wrong person.

"Although the complaint has been made, as far as the scheme administrator has been able to ascertain by reviewing its own records, there was no error and payment was made in accordance with the instructions provided," she told the court.

The Australian government and operators of the now-closed offshore immigration detention centre settled the class action a year ago without any admission of liability.

Slater and Gordon principal lawyer Andrew Baker said it was one of the most complex settlement distributions in the firm's 25-year history of class actions in Australia.

The full $70 million amount plus all interest earned in the settlement account is expected to be paid out by June 15 to the 1693 group members who registered to participate in the scheme.

The payments made across 39 countries will have been completed in under six months, Mr Baker noted.

"These figures and time frames are the best we have seen for an action of this size and type, especially considering the added complexities of paying the funds to as diverse a group as this in so many different locations," he said.

The individuals received between a few thousand dollars and almost $100,000 each, mainly for false imprisonment after a Papua New Guinea court ruled their detention on Manus was illegal.


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