Page 4752 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 31 October 2017
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asylum seekers on Manus are still not allowed to set foot on Australian soil. Even though the men will not technically be detained, there is nowhere for them to go. If they are not fortunate enough to be assessed as suitable by the US—and we still do not know how many they will take—they are being forced to either relocate to unsafe housing in the PNG community or wait for deportation back to whatever persecution they were escaping from.
Food, water, medical supplies and access to medical care will be cut off from today. A notice has been issued that, as of 5 pm, which was an hour and a half ago, the detention centre will become the property of the PNG defence force. Defence force personnel have been patrolling the fence line for days. The men are frightened. They have been warned that they will be liable for removal from an active PNG military base. It is a time bomb, ticking fast. It is a catastrophic situation. Men were given a month’s supply of medication a week or so ago and, as of yesterday, two days supply of food and water.
What will happen to them after today is unknown, but we can confidently assume that they will not be safe, they will not be cared for, they will not be able to access medical and psychological supports and they will be left to languish—languish on top of the four years they have already languished—with no end in sight.
In spite of their peaceful protest for 91 days, this is a human rights disaster. Even the PNG government is unclear what is to happen to the men. It is calling for clarification about what Australia is doing about those refugees who do not want to settle in PNG or those who have been found not to be refugees. Bear in mind that some of these men have sought asylum on the basis of being gay and they are being released into a society where that is punishable by 14 years imprisonment.
People do not choose to be refugees. Often smugglers are the only option for those seeking safety in other lands. People have left their families and friends in search of freedom from persecution. They have risked their lives in doing so. Most of them would relish the opportunity to contribute and, by far, most of them are deemed to meet the definition of refugee. This is what they have been found to be: a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution or natural disaster.
The federal government has created avoidable suffering. Eighty-eight per cent of the men on Manus have mental health issues, and this is our doing. There have been six deaths, all avoidable. Many are self-harming. This illegal, cruel and unworkable solution will have long-term deleterious effects and will continue to have a negative toll on human lives long after this week. They have experienced riots, been shot at, assaulted, sometimes treated worse than animals, robbed and, on occasions, beaten in front of Australian security guards.
Think of the locals, the PNG inhabitants. These people are already living without guaranteed supplies, including clean drinking water. They are, in fact, people who are struggling. They are a tribal society who will not be able to assimilate hundreds of men from very different backgrounds who have been forced upon them. I mentioned their attitudes to the gay community. It is no wonder they are resisting even though
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