MELBOURNE'S outer suburbs have become home to a growing humanitarian crisis, with thousands of asylum seekers living below the poverty line while banned from working.

Immigration documents reveal about 2000 adult male asylum seekers are living in the most basic conditions in our suburbs, many with no beds, suffering depression and living in fear without being able to earn a dollar.

And documents seen by the Herald Sun reveal more than 300 asylum seeker families, each including women and children, are expected to be released from detention centres into Victorian communities this month under the same conditions.

More than 100 people in family groups have arrived in Victoria from detention in the past week, including 30 children, several aged under six.

All he wants is the chance to work

About 700 people, mostly in family groups, are expected to arrive in Victoria this month and every month until the end of the year.

It follows a Gillard Government decision earlier this month to release families on bridging visas without work rights and minimal financial support.

Previously, only single adult men have been released under those conditions.

The documents also reveal more than 500 refugees on bridging visas have arrived in Melbourne since Christmas.

John Walsh, chief executive of humanitarian charity the Bridge of Hope Foundation, said marginalised asylum seekers could create ghettos of crime.

"They're going hand to mouth and by denying them the right to work and a proper place in society we're sowing the seeds of a problem that might far outweigh short-term political impetus," he said.

"We're seeing an impoverished underclass of fringe-dwellers being created by this policy and as a result we could see rising crime and mental health issues."

In the past month alone:

A MAN denied a protection visa attempted to harm himself with a knife in the Lonsdale St immigration department offices;

POLICE were called when a man whose asylum application was repeatedly delayed threatened to set himself alight in the city centre;

HUNDREDS of asylum seekers are without winter clothes and forced to sleep on floors without mattresses;

A 15-YEAR-OLD boy was found walking the streets wielding a knife and threatening to harm himself, and;

MORE than 100 asylum seeker families and groups are living in Melbourne without fridges.

Under federal government policy refugees who have fled torture, violence or persecution in their homelands are given protection visas if they arrive with UN approval.

Asylum seekers who flee of their own volition, usually by boat, are placed on bridging visas or in community detention.

Bridging Visa E, introduced on August 13 last year, bans refugees released into the community from working despite the policy previously encouraging asylum seekers to find employment.

Those released on bridging visas are entitled to only 89 percent of Centrelink benefits while their claims are processed, forcing most to live on about $200 a week.

And those on bridging visas can wait up to five years for their visa claim to be approved or rejected.

The documents reveal Victoria has 30 percent of Australia's bridging visa "clients" - the most in Australia.

Support groups have been told by the government to get asylum seeker children into school within five days of their release.

But the task is proving impossible with uniforms, books, shoe and stationary costs alone leaving charities high and dry.

Settlement and social justice heads have also reported several cases of refugees being bashed and robbed but being too scared to report the crimes to police, fearing it would jeopardise their visa applications.

Charles Sturt University justice studies senior lecturer Alison Gerard said it set a dangerous precedent.

"International evidence suggests moving refugees into the community without work rights and sufficient entitlements creates destitution," she said.

The State and Federal Governments both announced increases in mental health funding in their Budgets.

Cath Scarth, the Chief Executuive of AMES, the agency responsible for settling refugees and asylum seekers, said the release of families from detention would present a significantly increased challenge to charities and agencies providing support.





