Refugee Update - Manus Island
Sep. 20th, 2014 11:05 amAccording to a worker at the Manus Island detention centre, Hamid Kehazaei was kept waiting for a medical transfer to Port Moresby for a week, despite symptoms of septicaemia, a medical emergency which requires immediate treatment.
In October, the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court will rule whether a challenge to the Manus detention centre can continue. The court case involves both the legality of the centre and whether PNG's human rights laws have been violated by the treatment of detainees. (The Australian government funded the defence of an earlier constitutional challenge to the centre at the cost of $350,000 - $370,000.)
In the meantime, new fencing has been installed at the centre, eleven months after it was first recommended and eight months after flimsy fencing was pushed down by attackers. In a submission to the inquiry into February's fatal violence, a Salvation Army worker claims that he alerted his seniors to threatened violence by two fellow workers, one of whom has since been charged with the murder of Reza Berati.
PNG still has yet to work out its resettlement policy. Amnesty International comments that "It's been 22 months since the first asylum seeker was transferred to Manus... In that time, two asylum seekers have died and about 70 have been seriously injured, but not one has actually been processed and resettled. Over 1000 men are just languishing indefinitely in conditions the UN have said are inhumane."
In October, the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court will rule whether a challenge to the Manus detention centre can continue. The court case involves both the legality of the centre and whether PNG's human rights laws have been violated by the treatment of detainees. (The Australian government funded the defence of an earlier constitutional challenge to the centre at the cost of $350,000 - $370,000.)
In the meantime, new fencing has been installed at the centre, eleven months after it was first recommended and eight months after flimsy fencing was pushed down by attackers. In a submission to the inquiry into February's fatal violence, a Salvation Army worker claims that he alerted his seniors to threatened violence by two fellow workers, one of whom has since been charged with the murder of Reza Berati.
PNG still has yet to work out its resettlement policy. Amnesty International comments that "It's been 22 months since the first asylum seeker was transferred to Manus... In that time, two asylum seekers have died and about 70 have been seriously injured, but not one has actually been processed and resettled. Over 1000 men are just languishing indefinitely in conditions the UN have said are inhumane."