Unrest at the Manus Island camp this week left an Iranian man dead and more than 70 injured as tensions flared among inmates about their fate under Australia’s hardline asylum-seeker policies.
Canberra has sent the head of its military-run Operation Sovereign Borders, Angus Campbell, to the island to assess security and work out what happened.
Despite the violence and demands from refugee advocates that the facility, condemned as “harsh” by the United Nations, should be closed, Abbott said he would not step back from Australia’s strong border protection policies.
“We will not succumb to pressure, to moral blackmail,” he told reporters. “We will ensure these camps are run fairly, if necessary, firmly.”
Manus Island is one of two remote Pacific camps used by Canberra in its punitive offshore detention policy, with the other on Nauru.
Under the scheme, aimed at deterring people-smugglers, any asylum-seeker arriving by boat or intercepted at sea is transferred to Manus or Nauru for processing and permanent resettlement outside Australia.
There are conflicting accounts of what sparked the riot on Monday, with claims that locals, unhappy about the camp and armed with machetes, broke in. Others say the asylum-seekers tried to escape, while PNG security guards have also been blamed.
A man who said he witnessed the violence, but did not want to be identified, claimed PNG guards employed by the G4S security company running the center became angry when asylum-seekers shouted insults about their country and family members.
He said the guards beat detainees with sticks, iron bars and rubber hoses.
“When they pulled them outside, they started beating them with the sticks… some of them with sticks and some of them with all these hose, rubber hose and pipes,” he told ABC radio.
An interpreter employed by the Australian Immigration Department said asylum-seekers used plastic chairs as shields when G4S guards attacked them with machetes, knives and rocks.
“Definitely, 100 percent, I stand by the statement that the local people, including some employed by G4S, they were the ones who caused this drama,” Azita Bokan told Fairfax Media after flying out of Manus Island Wednesday.
“There was blood everywhere. The number injured was horrific—people with massive head injuries, at least one with a slashed throat,” she added, in comments that appeared to back what refugee advocates have said.
G4S said in a statement that “we take these allegations seriously and we as a company do not tolerate violent or abusive behavior from our staff”.
But it added: “Our personnel on duty during the disturbances acted with courage, strength and determination to protect those in our care.”
Both Australia and Papua New Guinea are conducting investigations.
© 2014 AFP
http://www.japantoday.com/category/world/view/australian-pm-says-he-wont-be-blackmailed-after-bloody-png-riot
20/2/14
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Australia asks impoverished Cambodia to take some asylum seekers...
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - Australia asked Cambodia, one of Asia's poorest countries, on Saturday to take in asylum seekers detained while trying to reach the Australian coast and Cambodia said it would think about it.
Australia's government came to power last year partly because of a tough stance on asylum seekers arriving from Indonesia with Prime Minister Tony Abbott promising to "stop the boats".
Australia already has offshore detention centers in the impoverished South Pacific nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru for asylum seekers it intercepts, often in rickety boats.
On Saturday, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop asked Prime Minister Hun Sen if Cambodia, which in the 1970s and 1980s saw a huge exodus of refugees fleeing war and starvation, could also house some migrants.
"The Australian minister has requested that Cambodia takes in some refugees," Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told a news briefing with Bishop...........http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/22/us-cambodia-australia-idUSBREA1L06D20140222?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
22/2/14
Australie: des migrants attaquent l'Etat après le naufrage d'un bateau...
ReplyDeleteDes familles de migrants noyés dans le naufrage d'un bateau près d'un territoire australien en 2010 attaquent l'Etat au motif qu'il a manqué à son devoir de secours et d'assistance, a annoncé mardi un avocat.
Cinquante migrants avaient péri lorsqu'un bateau de pêche transportant une centaine d'Irakiens, de Kurdes et d'Iraniens s'était fracassé sur des rochers à l'approche de Christmas Island, dans l'océan Indien. Un avocat, George Newhouse, a saisi la Cour suprême de l'Etat de Nouvelle-Galles du Sud (sud-est) au nom de huit familles de migrants. "Nous pensons prouver que le Commonwealth (l'Australie) savait, ou aurait dû savoir, qu'il y avait des hommes, des femmes et des enfants vulnérables pris en pleine mer dans une tempête, et que (les autorités) n'ont pas pris les mesures suffisantes pour les secourir", a-t-il expliqué dans un communiqué. Le ministre de l'Immigration, Scott Morrison, a récusé mardi des accusations "honteuses et offensantes". "C'est comme si quelqu'un qui venait d'être sauvé d'un incendie poursuivait les pompiers en justice", a-t-il argué. Réveillés par les cris des naufragés, des habitants de l'île étaient accourus sur le rivage et avaient jeté des gilets de sauvetage à la mer, en vain. Après huit mois d'enquête, un magistrat, le "coroner" Alastair Hope, a imputé l'entière responsabilité de la tragédie aux passeurs, tout en déplorant le manque de navires de grand gabarit sur Christmas Island. Ces dernières années, des centaines de migrants ont trouvé la mort en tentant de gagner l'Australie sur des bateaux de fortune, le plus souvent depuis l'Indonésie. (Belga)
http://www.rtl.be/info/monde/international/1101062/australie-des-migrants-attaquent-l-etat-apres-le-naufrage-d-un-bateau
17/6/14
Families of shipwrecked immigrants sue Australia....
DeleteRelatives of dozens of asylum seekers who were killed in a shipwreck off Christmas Island in 2010 have launched a legal case against Australia.
Lawyer George Newhouse said the government knew that people were at risk out at sea, but did not do enough to prevent their deaths.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said the lawsuit was "shameful".
About 50 asylum seekers, mostly from Iraq and Iran, died when their boat broke up on rocks.
Mr Newhouse's case, lodged at the New South Wales Supreme Court, alleges the government failed in its duty of care.
He said in a statement that the government "knew, or should have known, that there were vulnerable men, women and children that were on the high seas".
Officials "took insufficient steps to look out for them", he said...........http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27881476
Children suffering in Australian asylum-seeker camp...
ReplyDeleteSYDNEY: Australia's human rights commissioner on Thursday (July 24) said conditions at an asylum-seeker camp on Christmas Island have "significantly deteriorated" with children plagued by despair and suffering symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Gillian Triggs and leading paediatrician Elizabeth Elliott visited the centre last week as part of a national inquiry into the mandatory detention of children seeking asylum in Australia. It followed reports that up to a dozen mothers had attempted suicide this month, believing their babies would have a better chance of being settled in Australia if they were orphans.
She said she held "grave concerns" for the welfare of the 1,102 asylum-seekers in the facility, particularly the 174 children. Christmas Island is an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean. "In the four months since we (last) visited Christmas Island, the situation for asylum-seekers has significantly deteriorated," Triggs said after interviewing hundreds of detainees over three days.
She said 13 women were on high-level suicide watch with 10 of them requiring 24-hour monitoring, where a guard sits outside their room with the door open. They are mostly mothers concerned about their children with no places for babies to learn to crawl or walk "in the metal containers where they are confined in the extreme heat". "Christmas Island is no place for infants and young children," she said. "Most were ill with chest or gut infections -- reflecting the large number of families living in unacceptably cramped and high density accommodation intended for 'temporary' use."...................http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/children-suffering-in/1280142.html
24/7/14
Australia to sign refugee resettlement deal with Cambodia...
ReplyDeleteAs part of a controversial deal Australia will start sending refugees to Cambodia by the end of the year. Rights groups have voiced great concern for the well-being of asylum seekers and have condemned Canberra.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who is set to sign a deal in Phnom Penh later on Friday, said the agreement would help the government to keep its vow that no boatpeople would be resettled in Australia.
"This is about a regional solution. This is about providing genuine resettlement in a third country which is Cambodia, a signatory to the Refugee Convention," Morrison told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"It enables us to fulfill on the policy which says no one will be resettled in Australia."
In return, Cambodia would receive $35 million (27.5 million euros) over the course of four years and would carry the cost of resettlement, Morrison said, adding that refugees would only be relocated on a volunteer basis.
"The most important thing we're giving them is our expertise. Cambodia wants to be a country that can resettle refugees properly and they're seeking our advice and expertise on how we can do that," he added.
'Signing away' refugee rights
Rights groups such as Amnesty International have condemned the agreement, saying it "signs away refugee rights."
"A new low in Australia's deplorable and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers has been reached with a deal to apparently ship refugees to Cambodia, where respect for human rights cannot be guaranteed," the rights group said on its website.
"This agreement is putting the short-term political interests of the Australian government ahead of the protection of some of the world's most vulnerable people - refugees," said Rupert Abbott, deputy Asia-Pacific director at Amnesty.
"It makes Cambodia complicit in Australia's human rights breaches and seriously flawed offshore processing system," he continued.
The Australian Greens party has also condemned the move, saying refugees, especially female ones, could face dangers such as exploitation.
'Horrendous' camp conditions................http://www.dw.de/australia-to-sign-refugee-resettlement-deal-with-cambodia/a-17956525
26/9/14