2017-09-02
Shek Graham
The situation for refugees and people seeking asylum, held illegally on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the tiny island which comprises the Republic of Nauru, remains at an impasse more than four years after their forced detention. After 19 July 2013 it was stated that any person who arrived in Australia by boat would be transferred to either Manus or Nauru and told they would never be resettled in Australia. In reality, however people were arbitrarily split between Christmas Island, Manus Island and Nauru. Those who remained on Christmas Island were eventually brought to the Australian mainland and have been invited to apply for temporary protection visas. Most of those who were forcibly transferred to Manus or Nauru remain there today. Refugees and asylum seekers have been detained without hope, often with little news of their families, who are still being persecuted, tortured and even murdered back in their homelands.
In conversations with refugees both on Manus and Nauru, many describe the agony of being separated from wives, children and ageing parents with little or no hope of ever being reunited with them in peace and safety. Almost everyone on Manus, as well as many of those on Nauru, made incredibly difficult decisions to leave their families behind and make the treacherous, difficult and dangerous journey to Australia alone. They hoped that they could safely bring their loved ones over when they were settled, as they couldn't afford the cost of travelling with their families, or felt the journey was much too risky for their wives and children to face. They are heartbroken as their loved ones are left without them as the bread winner, and so many have suffered years of serious deprivation in their absence. All wish only for the opportunity to work in safety and provide for their families whilst they live in the constantly diminishing hope of asylum and eventual family reunification.
The little optimism that the refugees on Manus and Nauru were given when a refugee swap arrangement was brokered between Obama and Turnbull has been dashed recently. Despite the government repeatedly insisting that the deal was still intact even after Trump's election, the transcript of the actual phone call between Turnbull and Trump clearly shows that the deal is a sham, with Trump only obliged to go through the motions. Imran Mohammad, a refugee held on Manus Island for almost four years said “I just cried as I was reading the transcripts of the most two powerful leaders in this world. Their words made me feel like I am just a product to them and I can be traded for anything.”
Daniel Webb, Director for Legal Advocacy, Human Rights Law Centre, said recently of his first trip to Manus after Reza Berati's murder: "Everywhere I walked I met desperate people. Theyd point out the bullet holes, show me their injuries and describe their fears. But what caused them the most anguish was the indefinite nature of their situation. Would they be there a month? A year? Forever? They had no idea if, or when, or where, theyd ever get a chance at life in freedom and safety. Almost four years later, they still dont. And neither do the families stuck on Nauru. Ive been back to Manus twice since then and have come to know some of the truly extraordinary people our government continues to torment".
Another shot of the Manus Island protest.
Over 2000 people remain warehoused on Manus and Nauru, 1781 of whom have already been assessed to be refugees. Among these innocent people are 169 children, 42 of whom remain within the detention compound on Nauru. Despite a very rigid assessment process, 79% of those seeking asylum and detained on Nauru have been given a positive refugee status determination. Many have been given accommodation in the community though, because of a housing shortage many are still living in tents within the detention centre, but most live in fear of robberies, and even violent attacks by locals on their homes and themselves. Just recently, a refugee was badly beaten by people from the local community. Along with the 42 children still remaining in detention on Nauru, are 329 men and women. Most of the school-age children are in such fear, after several incidents of harassment and even physical violence at their local school, they no longer attend classes and have no other access to formal education, even within the camp. Nauru has no plans to offer permanent visas to refugees, and they cannot travel.
Many of the refugees on Nauru had applied to be considered for the "US deal" and have been through several stages of the assessment process. The releasing of the Trump/Turnbull phone conversation transcripts has caused a huge amount of anxiety amongst the refugees on Nauru. This was exacerbated when US staff recently left the island abruptly, partway through scheduled interviews. Though the detention centres on both Manus and Nauru were supposedly created as regional processing centres, providing a staging point for resettlement in a third country, less than a handful have been successfully resettled.
On Manus the situation is even grimmer. As of August 2016, less than 20 had volunteered for resettlement in PNG, and of those several have asked to be returned to the detention centre as they have been physically attacked and some have even found themselves homeless and without any form of support. Over 800 men remain in detention within the Lombrum detention facility, whilst perhaps more than 200 are housed in the transit facility just in East Lorengau awaiting "resettlement" in PNG. Those in the transit facility are resisting transfer into the community after witnessing the violence against fellow refugees. Planning documents for forcing refugees to move to the transit centre obtained by The Guardian have also revealed that officials are entirely aware that “The (Manus) community considers the refugees as a threat,” and that “The community targets asylum seekers to either harm them or steal from them.”
The Australian government has repeatedly refused to take any responsibility for the regional processing or detention centres on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Nauru. However, a senate enquiry which released its findings in April of this year found both detention facilities were indeed the responsibility of Australia, as the government "paid for all associated costs, engaged contractors, owned all major assets and was responsible for negotiating third-party resettlements". The government clearly had a duty of care to the asylum seekers it transferred to the Pacific islands, the report said, and “to suggest otherwise is fiction”.
In July 2017, Australian Border Force (ABF) and PNG immigration officials announced that the Manus detention centre where refugees and asylum seekers have been imprisoned was going to be demolished, after the centre was deemed illegal and against the PNG constitution following a case in the Supreme Court of PNG in April 2016, and the announcement of its closure in October 2016. Every detainee within would be removed, by force if necessary, before 31 October 2017. Plans have been revealed that Broadspectrum and Wilson Security, the contractors that manage and secure the facility respectively, would use armed PNG police if the refugees refused to be moved. This despite the prediction that there would be "potentially “catastrophic consequences” of using the PNG police, whom Australian authorities describe as “not trained” for the relevant tasks". The safety of the refugees and even their lives clearly don't matter as long as the refugees are moved.
Since the decision by the Supreme Court, the camp has been deemed to be an "open camp" by the Australian government. Despite eased restrictions on freedom of movement, the reality is that very few dare venture despite the harsh brutality of the camp, because serious attacks on refugees by PNG locals brandishing machetes, knives, iron bars and rocks are a regular occurrence, and in the last week of July, in three separate incidents, refugees were robbed and two seriously injured with machetes and bush knives.
In confidential documents leaked from Australias offshore detention centre on Manus and reported in The Guardian, inhuman conditions have been revealed, including "on-going high rates of self-harm, repeated suicide attempts, regular beatings and even sexual assaults, and warnings of an emerging culture of drug use by staff and detainees, alike". The Guardian also obtained incident reports which showed that "on several occasions, four men in detention on Manus have attempted suicide and self-harm in a single day" and "in one week, 16 self-harm and suicide attempts were recorded by authorities".
Just last week, Hamed Shamshiripour, an Iranian refugee with severe mental health issues who was repeatedly imprisoned and beaten during psychotic episodes, was found hanged in the forest outside Lorengau. His friends and Australian advocates had repeatedly asked for him to be brought to Australia where he could be treated in a suitable mental health facility, but this was continuously ignored. Hamed showed signs of a beating, but the PNG police are still investigating whether this was yet another suicide or even another murder. The government tries to minimise the brutality with which the refugees are confronted on a regular basis. The Lombrum detention centre is located within a PNG naval base on Manus. When PNG navy personnel recently shot live ammunition directly into the dormitories housing the refugees, after an argument over the use of a soccer pitch, the government tried to make out that the shots were fired into the air despite photos showing bullet holes in the walls of the accommodation buildings.
The refugees and asylum seekers on Manus have been holding a protest every day since 1st August. They refuse to be moved from the Lombrum camp to the East Lorengau transit centre despite the facilities within the camp being demolished around them. Water and power has been withdrawn from several of the main compounds. Amir Taghinia, a refugee currently on Manus, recently spoke on "The Project" news program and the essence of that interview was that conditions are rapidly deteriorating with many refugees becoming sick due to the cut-backs in cleaning services, the lack of clean drinking water and the wind-down of the medical facilities. The refugees don't want to go to the transit centre as it was designed to hold 230 people, and though ABF have recently brought in bunk beds and tents to increase the capacity to about 450 beds, the camp cannot possibly hold the more than twice that number to include all those from the Lombrum camp as well as those currently held there.
Protest at the Department of Immigration & Border Protection 14th August 2017, Perth. Michelle Bui
With easy access by locals from the adjacent town, the refugees are also even more vulnerable to further violent attacks which have happened with devastating consequences despite being within the confines of a naval base. On 17th February 2014 a large number of locals, including PNG police as well as guards employed within the detention camp, stormed the camp and attacked the men seriously injuring dozens of refugees and even stomping one refugee to death. Two PNG men employed by G4S were subsequently convicted of the murder of Reza Berati, a 23 year old Kurdish asylum seeker. Though many eye witnesses said that more than a dozen security guards, including Australian staff, were actively involved in the murder, only the two PNG men were tried. They escaped with sentences that mean they could be free after only 3 years in prison.
The men also fear being moved to the transit centre because they believe it will be easier for the authorities to force them to sign papers to be "released" into the community where they face homelessness, starvation and violence without adequate support to facilitate any resettlement process. All those at the Lombrum camp have refused to sign.
As the protest continues one refugee said to me after I expressed concern for his safety "No, no don't worry Mum even if they kill me I will never step back. We are dying here but they are still playing their games with us". This week US immigration officials visited Manus and are due on Nauru soon. The refugees see this as further game playing and have become increasingly cynical of the “US deal”. The likelihood of untrained PNG police officers being involved in the forced removal of the refugees increases day by day. Written signs posted all over the camp count down the days remaining until 31st October when the camp will close. The atmosphere is strained, fearful and worried but also determined. They have committed to stand together and refuse to be moved, even if attacked by armed PNG police. For those who have come to know these innocent refugees, and call them son or brother as we watch from afar, the situation is untenable.
For further information see: https://www.facebook.com/rran.org/app/100265896690345/; http://rran.org/sign-up/
Header photo: Day 15 of peaceful protest by refugees on Manus. Source: A refugee on Manus