Detainees paid $70m

ALMOST 2000 current and former Manus Island detainees will get a taxpayer-funded pay out which is the equivalent of a year on the minimum wage.

The Supreme Court has approved a $70 million settlement worth about $36,000 to each person involved in a class action against the Australian Government after they tried to reach Australia by boat.

Most of the 800 men still on Manus are part of the 1923 people eligible for the payment. The rest have either been sent to Nauru, returned to their home countries or resettled elsewhere, with only a small number in Australia who were moved here for medical reasons.