Thirty-nine asylum seekers on Naoero have written a letter to the Australian government urging the government to act to end the humanitarian crisis on Naoero. The letter reveals ‘the total lack of security and sub-human conditions that we are forced to endure’.
They write, “We are trapped in a system that is causing us severe physical and psychological destruction.”
The letter accuses the government of ‘weaponised starvation and total medical neglect’.
With asylum seekers not allowed to work, they are forced to survive on the meagre allowance paid each fortnight. But food is so expensive that the asylum seekers cannot afford to eat more than one meal a day. To make matters worse, there has been no rice or flour available on Naoero for over a month. When rice arrived two days ago, scores of asylum seekers queued for over 10 hours outside Egigu supermarket to try to buy some.
The letter outlines the harassment and frequent assaults and robberies perpetrated by locals (dei-Naoero).
The letter urges the government to provide permanent protection: “This is not a fair processing framework, it is a system of slow state-sponsored physical and mental torture,’ and goes on to urge the government to provide a timeline for relocation out of Nauru to a safe country…’
“The Albanese government is spending $790 million on just the latest contract to warehouse the asylum seekers on Naoero. It is a shocking waste of lives and money to fund the ‘Australian Solution’,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
Asylum seekers on Naoero are now being threatened with forcible removal to their home countries. This week, some of the Bangladeshi asylum seekers were told that unless they agreed to return their allowance would be cut off.
“The twenty-five years since Tampa have been 25 years of brutal offshore detention and abuse of human rights. It’s time Naoero was closed,” said Rintoul.
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
