Manus fences being dismantled

Within a couple of hours of a notice being handed to the refugees inside the Manus detention centre, fences around the Mike Compound have begun to be taken down.

Reducing the security around the centre will only raise the detainees’ fears of being attacked even further.

It was through the Mike fences that PNG locals and staff attacked the asylum seekers in 2014. It was in Mike Compound that Reza Barati was killed and scores of others were savagely bashed.

The moves to dismantle the fences comes as it is revealed that there is no proper security in the areas that the government is trying to force the refugees to move to.

The point that the refugees have made over and over again is that the Lorengau settlement area is not safe. There is a fence around the East Lorengau facility but because people are forced to go to the Lorengau settlement area for food and medications, they are vulnerable to attack. And the attacks are frequent and brutal.

Despite more lies from Peter Dutton about the state of the other two facilities, Hillside Haus and West Lorengau Haus – even the Murdoch press have revealed there are not even perimeter fences around them.

“Removing the fence around Mike shows the contempt that the Australian and the PNG governments have for the security of refugees who are in their care and need protection. Defenceless people just became more vulnerable. It is a form of psychological torture” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

“Is also shows the contempt for the governments’ responsibility to provide permanent security for the refugees and asylum seekers. Their demand is for enduring protection in a safe, third country. Many of those who have been deemed negative have never submitted a refugee claim in PNG, because they claimed protection from Australia when they arrived in 2013.

“The PNG government has no right to detain the people on Manus. The PNG and Australian governments are in contempt of the PNG Supreme Court ruling in 2016, which reads in part, ‘Naturally it follows that the forceful bringing into and detention of the asylum seekers in MIPC is unconstitutional and therefore illegal.’ Their on-going detention on Manus is illegal.

“The government has created a humanitarian disaster on Manus Island; it needs to urgently end the siege, and bring the refugees and asylum seekers here, to provide the security they need.”

Protest Dutton and Abbott, “End The Siege; Bring them Here,” Australian Technology Park, 6pm, Friday 10 November. Speakers include : Lee Rhiannon, NSW Greens Senator, ex Nauru Save the Children worker; Rita Mallia CFMEU president NSW Construction Division ; Shannen Potter, Vice President of Young Labor NSW.

For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713

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