Episode 123

It’s been called Australia’s Guantanamo, a privately run offshore camp for asylum seekers set up on Manus Island as part of Australia’s “Pacific Solution.” This week Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court deemed the centre illegal and ordered it to close amidst allegations of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment. Amnesty International has been one of the facility's most vociferous critics, so we invited Kate Schuetze, Amnesty’s South Pacific expert, to give us some background on the island and tell us what the future holds for the refugees and asylum seekers held there.

And, we take a look at one of Britain’s best-loved high street stores, BHS. The 88-year-old retailer was sold for just £1 last year and went into administration this April, leaving 11,000 jobs at stake. But it was the pension pot which drew most attention; from a surplus in 2008 to a substantial deficit by the time of the takeover, the downfall of BHS prompted a national discussion. How can a business collapse so rapidly, and how is it possible to sell a chain of stores for just one pound? And just what is the future for thousands of workers and their pensions? To answer these questions and more, we invited Hossein Dabiri, a senior financial reporter specialising in distressed debt and leveraged finance, to join us in the Sputnik studio.

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