article_snippet.sent: For Australia, these short-term solutions have been extraordinarily expensive.
article_snippet.sent: A 2014 report by the Guardian estimated that the Australian government may have spent as much as A$10 billion ($7.72 billion) on the Australian government detention policies since mid-2007-- and that each person in offshore detention costs the Australian government as much as A$440,000 ($343,000).
article_snippet.sent: the Australian government ended the Australian government Mare Nostrum search and rescue program last autumn, which was effective but was also costing the Australian government €9.5 million per month.
article_snippet.sent: the Australian government was replaced by a much smaller European Union-run program, Operation Triton, which has a smaller patrol area and a budget of less than a third that of Mare Nostrum.