Around 20 asylum seekers, including all the families of all six pregnant women in the Manus Island camp, were transferred to the mainland on Thursday morning.
Among the transferees is a sick 8 year-old Iraqi girl accompanied by her mother. All bar one of the transferees is from the family compound inside the camp.
“The transfer is a practical admission that the family compound is unfit for families and that the medical facilities are completely inadequate for anyone,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
“Manus Island should be closed. It says everything about the quality of medical care in Manus Island that the women about to have children have had to be brought to the Australian mainland. If the family compound cannot look after families then it should be closed.
“Only three weeks ago, the Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor claimed the facilities of the island were ‘adequate’. Now he has evacuated all the pregnant women and other sick asylum seekers.
“The myth of the ‘no advantage’ policy is slowly but surely being exposed. The punitive regime on Manus Island is both arbitrary and unsustainable,” said Rintoul.
Manus processing to start – for everyone?
On Wednesday 13 March, Immigration officers told Manus Island asylum seekers that refugee assessments will begin in ‘two or three weeks’. But they were also told they can expect to be on Manus Island between three and five years, even if they were found to be refugees.
“With processing starting on Manus Island and Nauru, processing must begin for the 10,000 asylum seekers dumped into the Australian community,” said Rintoul.
“Thousands of asylum seekers have been left in limbo in the Australian community, unable to work to support themselves and with no idea when their refugee claims will be assessed.
“The ramshackle and vindictive arrangements of the Pacific Solution have also been exposed by the Manus Island transfer. Will the refugee claims of the transferred families be processed along with the others on Manus Island. Or will their processing be halted because they are now on the mainland?
“It is a lie that the fate of asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru isbeing decided by the PNG or Nauru government. The Australian government is pulling all the strings. It is time to bring all the victims of the Pacific Solution to the mainland and to begin processing everyone.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul mob 0417 275 713
