
For four years, a group of Catholic nuns have been taking asylum seeker children on outings from a Melbourne detention centre.
Around six months ago the program came under review and has now been deemed “too risky” to continue by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
Sister Brigid Arthur, who runs the The Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project (BASP), told 774 ABC Melbourne’s Jon Faine on Wednesday, that the rules were becoming “more draconian … under the guise of security.”
She also described the conditions in the Broadmeadow’s Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation (MITA) as “worse than a prison”.

“[We’d] go to the Collingwood Children’s Farm, go to the zoo occasionally, out to adventure playgrounds,” she told Faine.
“Anything that actually can entertain the kids and give them some stimulation.”
Sister Brigid shared one anecdote of a little girl (pictured above and one 17 being held at MITA) who fell in love with a goat on an excursion.