A Bangladeshi asylum seeker, Helal, 31, with a wife and three-year-old son on Manus Island, has begun a hunger strike in Bomana prison where he has been held for over a year.
Helal is protesting the failure of the Supreme Court to meet its own February deadline to hand down an appeal decision.
Helal’s only crime is that he wants to support his wife and son on Manus Island.
Helal’s freedom and the future of his family rests on an appeal decision by the PNG Supreme Court, which was due to be handed down in February 2021. But no decision has been handed down. Helal had married a local Manusian woman in 2016 while he was being held in the Manus detention centre. His son, Mohammad, was born 19 March 2017.
He was separated from his wife and son when he deported back to Bangladesh in early 2018. After trying to get a visa from the PNG embassy to return to Manus Island, Helal returned by boat to Manus Island in November 2018, to live with, and support, his wife and son.
But, Helal was arrested in March 2019. It took 11 months to get to the National Court. He was freed from Bomana prison in April 2020, by the National Court, but his freedom lasted for just two weeks, when he was again imprisoned following PNG immigration successfully appealing the National Court decision.
At the Supreme Court appeal hearing on 14 December 2020, he was told the decision on the appeal would be handed down by February 2021.
Despite the tortuous delays, Helal has waited patiently. But now is the end of February, and he is at the end of his tether. Not only is there no decision, he has not ben told another date for the decision to be handed down.
The delay in the PNG court process has taken a severe toll on the physical and mental health of Helal and his wife and son.
Helal has been waiting too long. He needs a decision; he felt he had no alternative but to hunger strike.
For more information, contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713