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Refugee Update: Manus Island
Oct. 29th, 2017 01:16 pmUnless the Fates are kind, next week could see a catastrophe on Manus Island. On Tuesday, 31 October, electricity and water will be cut at the detention centre; food will no longer be available and the fences will be taken down.
The detainees will be forced to move to three new accommodation centres at the nearby town of Lorengau, where they are unwelcome; the 3,000 locals, who have been cheated by the Australian government and are angry about not being consulted, are afraid of the consequences of having almost 800 foreign men suddenly added to a community of only 3,000, with only a small number of police. I can't help worrying they're in greater danger from the deployment of Papua New Guinea's notorious paramilitary Mobile Squad.
For their part, the refugees, having already experienced threats, violence, and robberies outside the detention centre - are terrified of being moved to new centres without fences or security. The increasing assaults on the refugees are not investigated properly by authorities. Manus Island's single hospital can't provide sufficiently for locals, let alone the newcomers, many of whom have been left with severe mental or physical illness. (Australia will continue to provide some services, at a cost of up $250 million a year. Speaking of notorious, IHMS will continue to provide healthcare for some time after the centre's closure.)
Closing Manus Island (The Saturday Paper, 28 October 2017). Rohingya detainee Imran Mohammad reports: "The refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island are at the lowest point of their lives."
Days before the forced closure of Manus, we have no safe place to go (GA, 27 October 2017). Detainee journalist Behrouz Boochani describes the efforts to force refugees out of the camp, including more than halving food rations.
On Facebook, detainee Walid Zazai writes: "This is what we have lost: The ability to see our families, both the families we left or for many of us also the families we were trying to reach. Here on Manus we have lost the benefits of normal loving relationships. We have not seen or hugged our parents, siblings, fiancés, wives or children for more than four years. We single men have lost the opportunity to meet women who one day might become our wives."
Manus Island closure: PNG's notorious police mobile squad to be deployed (GA, 27 October 2017)
Australia/PNG: Refugees Face Unchecked Violence (Human Rights Watch, 25 October 2017)
The detainees will be forced to move to three new accommodation centres at the nearby town of Lorengau, where they are unwelcome; the 3,000 locals, who have been cheated by the Australian government and are angry about not being consulted, are afraid of the consequences of having almost 800 foreign men suddenly added to a community of only 3,000, with only a small number of police. I can't help worrying they're in greater danger from the deployment of Papua New Guinea's notorious paramilitary Mobile Squad.
For their part, the refugees, having already experienced threats, violence, and robberies outside the detention centre - are terrified of being moved to new centres without fences or security. The increasing assaults on the refugees are not investigated properly by authorities. Manus Island's single hospital can't provide sufficiently for locals, let alone the newcomers, many of whom have been left with severe mental or physical illness. (Australia will continue to provide some services, at a cost of up $250 million a year. Speaking of notorious, IHMS will continue to provide healthcare for some time after the centre's closure.)
Closing Manus Island (The Saturday Paper, 28 October 2017). Rohingya detainee Imran Mohammad reports: "The refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island are at the lowest point of their lives."
Days before the forced closure of Manus, we have no safe place to go (GA, 27 October 2017). Detainee journalist Behrouz Boochani describes the efforts to force refugees out of the camp, including more than halving food rations.
On Facebook, detainee Walid Zazai writes: "This is what we have lost: The ability to see our families, both the families we left or for many of us also the families we were trying to reach. Here on Manus we have lost the benefits of normal loving relationships. We have not seen or hugged our parents, siblings, fiancés, wives or children for more than four years. We single men have lost the opportunity to meet women who one day might become our wives."
Manus Island closure: PNG's notorious police mobile squad to be deployed (GA, 27 October 2017)
Australia/PNG: Refugees Face Unchecked Violence (Human Rights Watch, 25 October 2017)
