ChilOut reported in October 2010 that women at the Asti (a hotel which is now a makeshift detention centre) in Darwin have been waiting 6 moths for underwear. Many women only had one pair of pants, the ones they arrived in. On the 8th of March Serco (the company that runs the detention centres) gave the women three underwear pants each....

On top of that

The women at Asti have to line up and ask of sanitary napkins on the day of their period and not before. Then they are given 6 napkins. They are free to ask for more as needed however during the night only male officers are on duty so they must ask these men.

ChilOut member Jessica wrote to her MP Tanya Plibersek and they received a less than inspiring response from the Minister for Immigration on the 4th of Feb 2011

To read Bowen's response head to
http://www.chilout.org/index.php?news&nid=22