SYDNEY (Reuters) - About 20 asylum seekers left an abandoned
Australian-run detention center in remote Papua New Guinea on Friday, leaving
hundreds threatene
d with forcible eviction within days amid an immigration
standoff that has blighted Australia for years.
Nearly 600 men have barricaded themselves inside the Manus
island center for more than 10 days, despite having no regular food or running
water, defying attempts by Australia and Papua New Guinea to close the camp in
what the United Nations describes as a “looming humanitarian crisis”.
The men fear violent reprisals from the Manus island
community if they move from the camp to transit centers, pending possible
resettlement to the United States. The camp was closed on Oct. 31 and water and
power have been cut off.
Bowing to pressure from Papua New Guinea which said it would
forcibly evict and “apprehend” those that remained as of Saturday, around 20
men left the camp on Friday for one of the transit centers, three asylum
seekers told Reuters.
The remaining detainees said they would stay put, setting the
scene for a potential clash.
“Some left this morning, but there are more than 500 men that
remain and we will not move,” said one detainee who declined to be named for
fear of jeopardizing his application for U.S. resettlement.
Australia has used the Manus island center, and a camp on the
tiny Pacific island of Nauru, to detain asylum seekers who try to reach its
shores by boat. It says boat arrivals will never enter Australia, even if they
are found to be refugees, as this would encourage people smugglers in Asia.
Australia says the policy prevents people drowning at sea but
it has been widely condemned.
The U.N. Human Rights Committee said on Thursday Australia
should bring its migration laws into line with international standards. It is
concerned about conditions in Manus and on Nauru, citing serious safety
concerns and instances of assault, sexual abuse, self-harm and suspicious
deaths.
Papua New Guinea police returned on Friday, where they were
dismantling parts of the camp.
The asylum seekers, who include asylum seekers from
Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Syria, have used rubbish
bins to collect rainwater, while makeshift shelters have been erected to
provide protection against the tropical heat and rain.
“They are destroying our shelters. They destroyed the rubbish
bins where we have been collecting water too,” said Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish
journalist from Iran who has been detained for more than four years.
Papua New Guinea on Thursday removed large parts of the
camp’s fences, stoking fears amid threats of reprisals from locals.
0 Comments