The Australian government should consider deploying federal police to Manus Island in the lead-up to the closure of the immigration detention centre, Human Rights Watch has said.
The organisation recently visited and investigated the situation of 770 men who remained as refugees or asylum seekers after being sent to the Papua New Guinean region by the Australian government.
It found escalating violence and tension, including attacks and robberies on the men, and a lack of adequate responses by authorities. Its concerns add to calls by the UNHCR last week that the situation threatened to become a humanitarian emergency.
HRW maintained its call for the men to be brought to Australia as the only safe and adequate course of action but said in the meantime AFP officers should be sent to advise and assist local police in preventing crime and ensuring crimes are fully investigated.
“The problem is because the police are not taking these attacks seriously we’re trying to think what would be a way to get them a bit more active,” the director of HRW, Elaine Pearson, told the Guardian.
“That’s why we thought … with the presence of the AFP in an advisory capacity – as they already do in Port Moresby and other places – the police might take these cases more seriously.
“We’re making these recommendations also because we’re concerned the violence will get worse if the centre closes and these men are moved into other housing and accommodation in Lorengau. I think it’s a probability that will happen.”
The closure of the Manus Island detention centre
The Australian-run Manus Island immigration detention centre is scheduled to close on 31 October, after a 2016 ruling by the Papua New Guinea supreme court that the detention of asylum seekers was illegal and unconstitutional.
In recent months authorities have shut off essential services to encourage detainees to move into other compounds or into the community.
The 770 men still on Manus, who were originally transferred from Australia after arriving by boat, have been told they must settle in PNG if they have been granted refugee status or return home. Those whose applications for asylum have been rejected have been warned they will be deported if they refuse to leave.
Refugees have also been offered the opportunity to transfer to Nauru. They have been repeatedly told they will not be settled in Australia.
Once closed, the centre, which sits within a PNG naval base, will return to the control of the PNG defence force
During its investigation, HRW heard of frequent attacks and robberies by armed groups of local men against asylum seekers and refugees.
“Human Rights Watch found that groups of local young men, often intoxicated and sometimes armed with sticks, rocks, knives, or screwdrivers, have frequently assaulted and robbed refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island,” it said.
There had been at least three serious attacks since June, with the victims needing medical care in Port Moresby or Australia, HRW added.
Many refugees and asylum seekers didn’t travel into the nearby town of Lorengau, or travelled in groups, out of fear for their safety.
“If you go to the police station they don’t do a proper investigation so we don’t bother to go to the station,” HRW quoted a Rohingya refugee as saying.
Two other refugees saids they were robbed by local men, but police arrested them and another refugee instead, for “disturbing our local people” and detaining them for 24 hours without food.
“My friend was crying and scared, and then one of the police kicked him in the mouth,” he said. “He fell down and there was lots of blood.”
HRW also heard Australian authorities transferred a refugee with psychiatric and mental health conditions to Port Moresby, where the man alleged he was beaten by staff and detained for three weeks in dirty and crowded conditions.
“Australia sent refugees and asylum seekers to Manus who may have faced trauma at home but were otherwise healthy,” Pearson said. “Four years later, a significant number are killing themselves and self-harming.”
The situation would only worsen as Australian service providers withdrew, HRW said.
This week the Guardian reported the healthcare provider IHMS had been contracted by the PNG government to continue treating asylum seekers and refugees beyond 31 October.
Pearson said a “two-tiered” health system may add to tensions in the region, which is currently in the midst of a medication shortage along with other parts of PNG.
“They should be beefing up those services for everyone but bearing in mind that these refugees and asylum seekers have acute needs and mental health needs,” Pearson said. “There’s been two suicides in recent months. There’s a mental health crisis going on on Manus, which Australia is responsible for. This is not the time for the Australian government to be pulling away.”
HRW said it met with 40 asylum seekers and refugees on Manus and in Port Moresby, and interviewed current and former service providers as well as PNG government officials, one of whom allegedly described the settlement process as a “failure”.
Of the 770 men remaining on Manus, 600 are still inside the centre and are refusing to leave and take up residence in the East Lorengau alternative accommodation.
About 35 have signed settlement papers to remain in PNG but only four have found work and are financially independent.
HRW said it was unclear whether the 70 men transferred to Port Moresby for medical care would be returned to Manus once the centre closes.
