Malcolm Turnbull is kidding himself if he thinks the Manus crisis is over
Manus Island is a sleepy, pretty Melanesian island in the Bismarck Sea off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. It has few claims to fame. Japanese war trials were held there. The anthropologist Margaret Mead lived there. But now, its name has been dragged through the international mud as a byword for Australia's shameful refugee detention policies
Over the past two days, PNG police have done the Australian government's dirty work, breaking up the former detention centre and forcibly removing more than 300 men who were refusing to go to new facilities, in no small part because it consigns them to further indefinite detention.
The situation on Manus Island is going from bad to worse as authorities use batons on detainees refusing to leave the Regional Processing Centre.
But if Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton think that's the end of the matter, they're kidding themselves. All they have done is move the old problem to a new location, a few kilometres away. Without hope, without a solution this problem goes on and it remains Australia's responsibility.
The language used by Peter Dutton, describing the refugees as "bad tenants", has been appalling. They are not bad tenants. They are refugees. They were the unlucky last who tried to reach Australia before the gates banged shut, who put their money into the hands of unscrupulous people smugglers and hoped the ocean would not kill them before they reached freedom.
No one wants to see men, women and children drowning in the ocean. But that does not mean we can wash our hands of these asylum seekers. The way we have treated them is a stain on our reputation as a country that loves a fair go. As Nai Jit Lam, UNHCR's deputy regional representative, said this week, "Australia has in effect created and then abandoned a humanitarian crisis at the doorstep of the international community."
The federal government has buried first principles under the blanket of border protection. Australia is obliged under the refugee convention to protect people who are fleeing persecution and violence. A fundamental principle of law is that detention should be for a clear and limited period. After more than four years in detention, refugees on Manus Island and Nauru should be brought to Australia.
We should also take up New Zealand's offer to resettle 150 of the refugees. We should press the United States to expedite its resettlement agreement, intended to resettle 1250 refugees, which will go some way to clearing the asylum seekers in PNG and Nauru. If necessary, a special envoy should be appointed to facilitate a swift resettlement program, while sending a clear message to people smugglers that their wretched boats will not land. This is not an impossible task. But it is a measure of competence and compassion.
Malcolm Turnbull should take personal responsibility for ending this tragic episode. The Prime Minister is not a cruel man, he is not inhumane, but what we have witnessed on Manus Island and Nauru is both cruel and inhumane and it should bother his conscience.
What we must not do is turn refugees into expendables, the human waste we are prepared to accept as casualties of our border protection policy. Mr Turnbull says he won't outsource Australia's migration policy to people smugglers. But he is prepared to outsource our refugee policy to PNG, our largest aid recipient. If in Malcolm Turnbull's universe these men have done something wrong by trying to seek asylum in Australia, how long does he think they deserve to be punished?
Over the past several days, I have been in PNG and Manus Island as part of a fact-finding mission under the auspices of the Australian Council for International Development, the peak body for Australia's aid and humanitarian sector.
As part of this fact-finding mission we have seen for ourselves the new facilities that Mr Dutton says are ready to go. They clearly are not. One of the facilities, West Haus, is a building site, with open drains. The new facilities are a mishmash of completion and recent excavation and a long way from Mr Dutton's assurances. It is certainly no place for people with severe medical and psychological problems.
But even when the accommodation is completed, some weeks from now, the real problem remains that no solution is in sight for the refugees who have been dumped here.
Over the past few days I have spoken to many of the Manus refugees, sat with them, listened to their stories, heard the longing they feel for their families, their heartache, and I have seen the hopelessness in their eyes. It is a soul-shattering experience to look into the face of a human being who has been denied not just liberty, but also hope, by our government, in our name.
Manus Island is a sleepy, pretty Melanesian island in the Bismarck Sea off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. It has few claims to fame. Japanese war trials were held there. The anthropologist Margaret Mead lived there. But now, its name has been dragged through the international mud as a byword for Australia's shameful refugee detention policies
Over the past two days, PNG police have done the Australian government's dirty work, breaking up the former detention centre and forcibly removing more than 300 men who were refusing to go to new facilities, in no small part because it consigns them to further indefinite detention.
The situation on Manus Island is going from bad to worse as authorities use batons on detainees refusing to leave the Regional Processing Centre.
But if Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton think that's the end of the matter, they're kidding themselves. All they have done is move the old problem to a new location, a few kilometres away. Without hope, without a solution this problem goes on and it remains Australia's responsibility.
The language used by Peter Dutton, describing the refugees as "bad tenants", has been appalling. They are not bad tenants. They are refugees. They were the unlucky last who tried to reach Australia before the gates banged shut, who put their money into the hands of unscrupulous people smugglers and hoped the ocean would not kill them before they reached freedom.
No one wants to see men, women and children drowning in the ocean. But that does not mean we can wash our hands of these asylum seekers. The way we have treated them is a stain on our reputation as a country that loves a fair go. As Nai Jit Lam, UNHCR's deputy regional representative, said this week, "Australia has in effect created and then abandoned a humanitarian crisis at the doorstep of the international community."
The federal government has buried first principles under the blanket of border protection. Australia is obliged under the refugee convention to protect people who are fleeing persecution and violence. A fundamental principle of law is that detention should be for a clear and limited period. After more than four years in detention, refugees on Manus Island and Nauru should be brought to Australia.
We should also take up New Zealand's offer to resettle 150 of the refugees. We should press the United States to expedite its resettlement agreement, intended to resettle 1250 refugees, which will go some way to clearing the asylum seekers in PNG and Nauru. If necessary, a special envoy should be appointed to facilitate a swift resettlement program, while sending a clear message to people smugglers that their wretched boats will not land. This is not an impossible task. But it is a measure of competence and compassion.
Malcolm Turnbull should take personal responsibility for ending this tragic episode. The Prime Minister is not a cruel man, he is not inhumane, but what we have witnessed on Manus Island and Nauru is both cruel and inhumane and it should bother his conscience.
What we must not do is turn refugees into expendables, the human waste we are prepared to accept as casualties of our border protection policy. Mr Turnbull says he won't outsource Australia's migration policy to people smugglers. But he is prepared to outsource our refugee policy to PNG, our largest aid recipient. If in Malcolm Turnbull's universe these men have done something wrong by trying to seek asylum in Australia, how long does he think they deserve to be punished?
Over the past several days, I have been in PNG and Manus Island as part of a fact-finding mission under the auspices of the Australian Council for International Development, the peak body for Australia's aid and humanitarian sector.
As part of this fact-finding mission we have seen for ourselves the new facilities that Mr Dutton says are ready to go. They clearly are not. One of the facilities, West Haus, is a building site, with open drains. The new facilities are a mishmash of completion and recent excavation and a long way from Mr Dutton's assurances. It is certainly no place for people with severe medical and psychological problems.
But even when the accommodation is completed, some weeks from now, the real problem remains that no solution is in sight for the refugees who have been dumped here.
Over the past few days I have spoken to many of the Manus refugees, sat with them, listened to their stories, heard the longing they feel for their families, their heartache, and I have seen the hopelessness in their eyes. It is a soul-shattering experience to look into the face of a human being who has been denied not just liberty, but also hope, by our government, in our name.
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