A 24-year-old refugee says he was assaulted by a gang of youths on Manus Island, in the latest act of alleged violence against detainees from Australia’s offshore processing centre.
The man told police he was walking from a Lorengau hotel to a lodge on Sunday evening when a group of young men called out to him. He said he ignored them but then the group surrounded him and one man demanded he hand over his phone.
“They went on and started punching me and pushing my head down,” he told police. “My eyes went blackout and I felt dizzy like and almost unconscious. One of them who was at my back kicked me on my back very hard which was very painful.”
One of the group then allegedly stole money from his back pocket and they fled. The man was assisted by a woman from a nearby lodge.
He told Guardian Australia the police were trying to apprehend the assailants, but he had not received any help from the staff at the detention centre where he still lived.
The man, an Iranian Christian, has been on Manus Island for three years after seeking asylum in August 2013. He said this was the second time he had been seriously assaulted.
PNG police have been contacted for comment.
Community unrest with the hundreds of refugees on Manus Island has resulted in frequent acts of violence. Detainees are now free to leave the detention centre and travel to Lorengau, but many report they are too scared of attack.
In August two refugee men were violently attacked by local men who beat them with a metal bar.
Alleged criminal acts by detention staff, and perceptions that promised community benefits have not materialised, have also contributed to hostility among local people against the centre and people associated with it.
https://viewer.gutools.co.uk/preview/australia-news/2016/aug/14/manus-island-photos-show-aftermath-of-violent-attack-afghan-refugees
Last month the country’s supreme court dismissed an application by lawyer Ben Lomai to have detainees transferred to Australia within 30 days. The case was dismissed on a paperwork technicality.
More than 600 asylum seekers and refugees on the island have since filed fresh applications seeking release and compensation.
The cases followed a ruling in April by the Papua New Guinea supreme court that the Manus Island detention centre was illegal and unconstitutional, and the order it be closed as soon as possible.
The decision sparked a stalemate of sorts between the PNG and Australian governments. PNG claimed the detainees were Australia’s responsibility under the memorandum of understanding between the two countries. Australia disagreed.
Australia has maintained that no asylum seekers or refugees from its two offshore processing centres on Manus and in Nauru would ever settle in Australia.
On Tuesday the Labor opposition unanimously voted to block a proposed bill by the government that would permanently ban about 3,100 adults from ever visiting Australia, including for business or tourism, because they had tried to seek asylum in Australia by boat after July 2013 – when then prime minister Kevin Rudd signed the deal with PNG.
The Australian government has been engaged in long-running negotiations with unnamed countries to take refugees for resettlement. The permanent visa ban was suggested as necessary to gaining a deal.
