Rausim: Detention Centre at Manus Island

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By PNG Echo

While PNG Echo strives to provide its readers with original content, in this instance, I feel that this letter from Amnesty International is worthy of compromising that position.

The letter asks for help to spread the message – as the situation is disgusting (you wouldn’t treat an animal as badly), how can one refuse?  From the tone of the letter, the situation is also urgent!

art-refugee-620x349This detention centre on Manus is to Australia’s abiding shame and by default PNG’s also.

PNG does not need to adopt another country’s problems nor to contribute to the misery of the most wretched.  PNGeans are better than this!  Rausim!

Letter from Amnesty.

Dear Susan,

I’ve just come back from a week at Manus Island detention centre.

While many journalists have been denied access, our Amnesty research team was let inside. Now for the first time we’re able to reveal what life and conditions are like inside this secretive detention centre.

What we found inside was bleak, and far worse than we anticipated. The entire system is designed to mentally break asylum seekers and force them to return from where they’ve fled. In one compound we found 112 asylum seekers crammed into a sweltering, windowless shed.

Asylum seekers are routinely humiliated from the moment they arrive. They’re referred to by their boat numbers instead of their names. They’re denied enough water, medical help, contact with their families. They lack basic necessities like clothing, soap and shelter from the extreme heat. Some told us they have contemplated suicide because of the harsh conditions.

Medical professionals told us that they are unable to treat serious illnesses, and that conditions are contributing to depression, anxiety and trauma. They were frustrated with the lack of mental health services and basic sanitation provided – and the complete lack of response from Australian authorities to their requests.

Today our report is making headlines around the world. Please help us spread the word about the truth on Manus Island.

Most of the people we spoke to had fled war-torn countries, or situations of extreme discrimination in countries like Afghanistan, Darfur, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria. To see people so hopeless and broken was heart-breaking.

I will never forget hearing from an Iraqi man. When talking about his life on Manus Island, he said: “I have lived in war zones, with bombs and explosions. I have never experienced what I am experiencing here with the uncertainty we face. If we had died in the ocean that would have been better.”

There are almost 2,000 people being detained on Manus Island and Nauru. The government spends over $1 billion a year to keep them locked up – yet only ONE asylum claim been processed since they opened.

To date Manus Island is a spectacular failure. Please SHARE what we found on Manus Island. People need to know.

Imagine enduring these conditions each day with no information about when you can begin your life again. Many of the men we spoke to pleaded for Amnesty’s help. I won’t stop campaigning until they can live in safety and dignity.

Thank you,

Graeme McGregor
Refugee Campaign Coordinator
Amnesty International Australia

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9 Replies to “Rausim: Detention Centre at Manus Island”

  1. Dear Susan,

    Please can you organize a meeting (or a contact address) between Graeme McGregor and I, I’d like to do an article this coming Sunday in the Sunday Chronicle newspaper on the detention center in Manus. Thanks

  2. I am a dependant of a naval officer and resides in the base where the asylum center is i disagree about these Australians not allowing the media into the area. As we all know PNG is a democratic country and everyone has the right to know what’s going on in there. Even an ordinary person like me is not allowed to take a picture of the area and if I’m caught my camera will be destroyed on the spot.. What is the meaning of this?? People can’t just come into our country and start controlling us. Even almost all the facilities and offices in the base are now used by the Australian which rightfully belonged to the PNGDF. Let the media in the center or better yet remove the asylum center to Australia.

  3. This clearly shows that PRIME MINISTER is a puppet….why.? 1.difine democretic.grassroots people like me have the right to air our concern.why journelist and other people are restricted.this is dictatorship. 2.if PRIME MINISTER and his party are serious with the interest of the people then why.,there’s no debate. 3.he’s a real puppet.lion in a sheep body.

  4. This PNG Govt is breaking the sovereign nation’s security apart! How can aliens from another country arrive in this land and enter a Defence Force facility at will … without security clearances and doing business without a decent agreement in place and forcing the rightful host, the PNG Defence Naval Element to become mere spectators and reduced to be ineffective as a respectable military force. Is there similarities being done in Australian Military establishments right now? Some top brass in the Government of PNG must define this situation now !