This point scoring and deal making with refugee's lives is absurd

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This was published 6 years ago

This point scoring and deal making with refugee's lives is absurd

By Behrouz Boochani
Updated

The situation in Manus prison camp is critical right now. As I write, immigration officers and PNG police are attempting to enter the detention centre for the third time this morning, determined to cut the power and water to Foxtrot compound. But the refugees have laid down in their way to prevent them from coming in. The refugees in Manus have had hard days this week as immigration tries to force them out of the centre and into more danger. They have started to peacefully protest every day, calling on immigration to restore power to the largest compound in Manus prison camp. Power, water, sanitation and cleaning services have all been cut, a terrible experience in crowded conditions and tropical heat.

As these events unfold, more details have come to light about the US deal that would supposedly see some of us "swapped" into the US for people they do not want. Astonishingly, in a leaked transcript of the conversation between Turnbull and Trump, the Australian Prime Minister tells Trump that if he honours the deal, Australia will take "anyone that you want us to take", even if that means "a not very attractive guy". At the same time, he assures Trump that the 2000 people he has imprisoned in Manus and Nauru for four years are not bad people. But even if we were the "best people in the world", or Nobel Prize winning geniuses, we would not be allowed into Australia.

From a government that still insists it "will decide which people get to come to Australia", and that continuously links this to national security, this is a very strange recognition indeed. I can only imagine that if the Australian people knew this meant rejecting good people in exchange for whichever less "attractive ones" the US President sends Australia's way, they would never have signed up.

In the four years we have been imprisoned in Manus Island we have experienced three prime ministers of Australia. But our usefulness as a political football has never changed. This point scoring and deal making with our lives is absurd.

The leaked Turnbull-Trump phone call was a revelation.

The leaked Turnbull-Trump phone call was a revelation.Credit: AP

Peter Dutton has reiterated that the Manus detention centre will close by October 31. This does not reflect any concern for the 800 or so refugees still housed here. Instead, it means a kind of ruthlessness has been formed in the government and the minister is utterly determined to shut down the facility despite us having nowhere safe to go.

As services inside the detention centre are progressively shut off, a newly installed countdown board reminds us how many days until the camp will close. Refugees are expected to move to East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre (ELRTC) next to Manus Island's main town (close to where refugee Hamed Shamshiripour was found dead on Monday). Immigration is arranging meetings with individual refugees, telling them "the camp will be closed soon and you have two options, either move to East Lorengau or return to your country". This is no choice at all. The refugees cannot go back to their countries, and Lorengau is completely unsafe for them. In the past two months locals have attacked and robbed refugees in Lorengau on more than five occasions, often at knife point. Three refugees have been seriously injured and required surgery.

The common belief of the refugees is that leaving the detention centre means they will be left in PNG forever with no safety. For this reason, only about 80 people have moved to ELRTC during the past four years. This fear is now heightened, with Turnbull's leaked assurance to Trump that by agreeing to the US deal, the "obligation is only to go through the process" and that the agreement "does not require you to take any" of the refugees.

A crucial question is raised by the current situation. With the government determined to close the camp in October, and the refugees determined to resist this pressure and refuse resettlement in PNG, what method will the government use to empty the detention centre? As I write, the AFP are advising the guards, who are now gathering at the gate, how to force their way in and disperse our peaceful protest.

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Refugees at the Manus Island regional processing centre protesting earlier this month.

Refugees at the Manus Island regional processing centre protesting earlier this month.

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Resettlement in PNG is not a humane option. The US now looks out of reach. If the government forces us out of the camp and into more danger we will continue to protest peacefully, but no-one should be surprised if these weeks are punctuated by violence against refugees.

Behrouz Boochani is a refugee on Manus island. Translated by Moones Mansoubi.

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