A Manus Island asylum seeker who has been slated for release in Papua New Guinea as a processed refugee climbed a tree on Sunday to prevent guards from moving him to a crowded pre-release centre.
Behrouz Bouchani, a Kurdish journalist and writer who fled Iran to seek asylum in Australia in 2013, told Guardian Australia that he was to be moved from one of the regional processing centre’s three main compounds, Foxtrot, to another compound, Oscar, because the PNG government had determined he was a genuine refugee.
The positive determination came through on Monday. The Guardian reported this week that at least 45 other asylum seekers, out of a group of about 60 who refused to put their claims to PNG, were told they had received a negative assessment. Those who receive two negative assessments face deportation.
But Bouchani – who refused to present his refugee application to Papua New Guinea because, he told Guardian Australia in November, he was brought to the country against his will – has refused to accept the determination that he should be resettled in PNG.
“I have been imprisoned here for almost three years and have been under a lot of pressure to fill in the protection application in PNG but I have constantly denied to do so,” he said in a statement released by refugee advocates.
“I did not arrive in PNG and did never give the PNG government my case for asylum. I have never wanted to resettle in this country.”
He is reported to have climbed a tree out of the reach of guards at 7.30am and remained there, supported by other detainees on the ground, into the afternoon.
Video footage seen by Guardian Australia showed a person who appeared to be a shirtless Bouchani sitting in the branches and saying, “I am here for my political values and western civilisation values.”
A spokesman for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection said it was aware of the incident and that local authorities were onsite “to ensure the ongoing safety and welfare of the individual concerned”.
The department would not comment on the refugee application.
About 500 people who received positive refugee determinations from PNG are expected to be moved to a transfer centre or resettled in PNG. About 160 asylum seekers on Manus have written to the UNHCR to ask that they be resettled in a country that is part of the UN resettlement program instead.
