Shorten urges Turnbull to strike deal with NZ as PNG police enter Manus
Bill Shorten calls on PM to accept New Zealand’s offer to take asylum seekers, with activist Behrouz Boochani arrested.
Bill Shorten has called on the Turnbull government to accept New Zealand’s offer to take some of the asylum seekers from Manus Island, after PNG police this morning stormed the island’s decommissioned detention centre, giving its inhabitants an ultimatum to leave.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the men on Manus Island were behaving “like the tenant that won’t move out of the house when you’ve built a new house for them to move into”, amid reports that Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani has been arrested after sending out tweets this morning accusing the PNG police of being “very aggressive” and destroying the asylum seekers’ belongings.
Australia closed the Manus Island regional processing centre at the end of October as part of an agreement with the PNG government, spending $10m on an alternative reception centre in East Lorengau.
As many as 380 refugees and asylum seekers have refused to leave the old centre, citing safety fears.
Mr Shorten said he believed he shared the views of “most Australians” on the refugee issue.
“We don’t want to see the people smugglers back in business, but I’m also like most Australians,” he said.
“We do not believe that indefinite detention is the only way to deter people smugglers.
“I am frustrated, I think like nearly all Australians that this current government has allowed this pressure cooker to build over four years, and I just ask Malcolm Turnbull, please do the deal with New Zealand.
“If New Zealand want to take some of these people and PNG and these people are happy to go to New Zealand, why are we getting in the way of a fair solution.”
In tweets from the Manus Island centre this morning, Mr Boochani, an activist and journalist who has previously written for Guardian Australia and Fairfax, accused the PNG police of being heavy-handed.
They are taking the phones and are very aggresive and are taking out some refugees who still remain in the rooms. Something terrible is happening right now, they are taking the refugees out of the rooms.
— Behrouz Boochani (@BehrouzBoochani) November 22, 2017
“They are destroying everything. Shelters, tanks, beds and all of our belongings. They are very aggressive and put our belongings in the rubbish bins,” Mr Boochani tweeted.
“We are blockading right now. So many police and immigration officers are around us at this moment. They destroyed everything and our belongings and right now are shouting at us to leave the prison camp.”
Police upturned the men’s rooms, confiscated phones and demanded they leave immediately.
“We are on high alert right now. We are under attack,” Mr Boochani said.
He was later photographed being led away in handcuffs.
Images uploaded on social media showed people displaying injuries allegedly sustained during the raid.
.@PeterDutton_MP says detainees on Manus Island refusing to leave is not going to change the government's mind #auspol
— 2GB 873 (@2GB873) November 22, 2017
‘Like the tenant that won’t move out’: Dutton
Earlier, Mr Dutton said a police operation was underway.
“Obviously we’re very keen for people to move out of the Manus regional processing centre,” he told 2GB.
“I think it’s outrageous that people are still there and they have trashed the facility, they are living in squalor and the Australian taxpayers have paid about $10m for a new facility and we want people to move.
“Obviously it’s in the end an issue for PNG police and the authorities up there, but there is an operation involving police at the centre this morning.”
Mr Dutton said the men on Manus were behaving “like the tenant that won’t move out of the house when you’ve built a new house for them to move into.”
“You’ve given them six months’ notice, which we’ve done up there,” he said.
“We’ve said this new facility’s available, we want you to move.
“The only difference between the two is that you’ve got to prepare your own meals with food provided at the new centre. They won’t get the a la carte service at the current centre.
“All the medicals provided for free. We’ve spent millions of dollars on the medical services up there.
“In the end as we’ve discussed before, the 50,000 people who arrived on 800 boats has cost the taxpayer so far $11bn.”
‘Cruel and inhumane’: Tim Costello
World Vision Chief Advocate Tim Costello, who is on Manus Island heading an inter-agency fact-finding mission, called on Malcolm Turnbull to personally intervene.
“Malcolm Turnbull is not a cruel man, he is not inhumane, but what we are witnessing here is both cruel and inhumane,” Mr Costello said.
“I think personally he’d be appalled if he was seeing what we are witnessing.”
Mr Costello said the men had refused to leave the abandoned detention centre because the replacement accommodation was reportedly not ready, because of previous violent experiences with locals, and because they had already been in limbo for four years, unable to move on with their lives after being forcibly transferred to Papua New Guinea.
“The current situation simply cannot go on,” Mr Costello said.
“This is not a problem created by the people of Papua New Guinea, who are our friends and neighbours. They have been unfairly dragged into a mess of Australia’s making.
“The Australian government is responsible for the safety and wellbeing of the men on Manus Island both under international law and as a basic moral obligation.
“We call on the Australian government to immediately evacuate the men on Manus Island, to ensure they are supported and assisted to recover and offer them the future they deserve.”
Video from Manus Island detention centre right now, via @manusalert on Telegram pic.twitter.com/lCDlotw2x2
— Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) November 22, 2017
‘Stain on Australia’s reputation’: Hanson-Young
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Australia was responsible for how the men were treated by the PNG police.
“Australia has the key responsibility for what happens to these people, what unfolds inside the camp today, and in the following days, and this suffering is on the head of the Australian government,” Senator Hanson-Young said.
“Make no mistake about that. They are the ones who are leaving these people to rot, they are the ones who have tortured them, and they are the ones who are spending Australian taxpayers money doing it, bringing shame to the Australian people.”
“What I would urge those asylum seekers and the refugees in the camp to do is to look after themselves, be careful, and avoid violence.
“However, the reason they can’t leave the camp is because it is unsafe on the other side. That is what they’re terrified of, and they have every right to be terrified. In the past they have been attacked. They have been assaulted, they have been abused.
“The locals on Manus Island don’t want them there, and the Australian government has left them there to rot, and now are stopping New Zealand from even lending a helping hand. It’s an appalling situation. It’s a human rights crisis, and it is becoming now an international stain on Australia’s reputation.”
Former Australians of the year write to Turnbull, Shorten
Twelve former Australians of the Year last night penned an open letter asking Mr Turnbull and Mr Shorten to immediately allow doctors access to asylum seekers in the facility.
The letter’s signatories include Australians of the Year Rosie Batty, Ita Buttrose, Simone McKeon, Patrick McGorry, Mick Dodson, Tim Flannery, Fiona Wood, Fiona Stanley, Gustav Nossal, Peter Doherty, John Yu and Robert de Castella.
The group warns Australia’s reputation on human rights is deteriorating because of the failure to meet the obligations of the UN Refugee Convention.
“We believe it is time to stop the unacceptable and internationally criticised treatment of the refugees on Manus Island, who, though innocent of any crime, have been incarcerated and now abandoned there,” the letter says.
Mr Dutton said that while the signatories may be well-intentioned, big-hearted people who thought they were doing the right thing, their conclusions were wrong.
“People aren’t locked up at the East Lorengau reception centre. They can come and go, 190 people a day were on buses going down to the local community from the Manus regional processing centre, so they mix in the community regularly,” he said.
“The Australian taxpayer has been incredibly generous and I just hope that people who are advertising at the moment or have got their names in the paper or whatever they’re doing, writing letters, publish a thanks to our border protection staff and our Navy staff that have run Operation Sovereign Borders, and we haven’t had a death at sea in three years because the people I worry most about are the 1200 who drowned at sea, and we’re not going to see a repeat of that circumstance.”
— With AAP
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