Hundreds of asylum seekers on Manus Island have been holding daily peaceful protests since 25 January.
Each day, up to 500 protesters in Oscar compound rally after lunch at the compound gates with placards and chants calling for freedom and for help from the media, the UN and the international community.
The asylum seekers are protesting against the ‘inhumane conditions’ and are calling for the Australian government ‘to end their life in limbo.’
Oscar is the most deprived of the compounds within the detention centre and the detainees have no access to phones or the internet. The protest sit-ins now look set to spread to other compounds inside the detention centre.
The asylum seekers have been kept for months in appalling conditions on Manus Island with no answers to how long they will wait for the refugee claims to be processed; how long they will be held on the island and no guarantees of their long-term resettlement.
Minister Scott Morrison was forced to admit that there is no agreement with PNG to permanently resettle refugees and that PNG has no plans to resettle refugees in PNG.
“There is a gaping hole in Morrison’s off-shore processing regime. The protests on Manus are just a taste of things to come,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
“No third country is going to take refugees from Nauru or Manus Island. Just as under the Howard government, sooner or later, Australia will be forced to bring refugees from Nauru and Manus Island to Australia.
“With a constitutional challenge proceeding in PNG, more protests and the existing agreement with PNG expiring in July, it is time to close the Manus Island hell-hole.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul mob 0417 275 713
