Asylum seekers at the Budapest camp on Naoero (formerly Nauru) are facing a severe food shortage after being forced to dispose of food following the second power blackout at their camp in the last week.
Power failed last Tuesday at the Budapest camp. Then yesterday, Thursday 6 August, Budapest camp was left without power for over nine hours, after power failed around 1pm. Food stored in fridges quickly spoiled in the Naoero heat.
The loss of food has created an immediate crisis for the Budapest camp. Most asylum seekers there are eating one meal a day because they are unable to afford to buy food on Naoero. The situation has been made worse by the fact that neither rice nor flour (cheaper staples) have been available on Naoero for the last month.
On Friday morning (8 August), the asylum seekers still had not heard if Naoero authorities were going to replace the spoiled food.
One asylum seeker told the Refugee Action Coalition, “Now I can’t eat anything. Our food has been spoiled here. When the electricity goes out for one or two days, the food is spoiled. We do not have enough money to buy more. This is not a human life.”
“The situation on Naoero grows worse by the day,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition, “Asylum seekers and refugees on Naoero are being starved because they cannot afford food. The already precarious situation for asylum seekers and refugees is pushing them to the edge.
“The unbearable conditions on Naoero are part of a deliberate deterrence strategy by the Australian and Naoero governments trying to drive asylum seekers to return home. Labor is spending hundreds of millions to undermine fundamental human rights, while asylum seekers go hungry.
“Naoero should be closed. Instead of following Pauline Hanson, with even more divisive anti-migrant and anti-refugee policies, Tony Burke and Labor could use the millions being wasted on offshore detention to improve the lives of asylum seekers and address the cost of living crisis.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
