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AUSTRALIA HAS AGREED to close an immigration camp housing hundreds of asylum-seekers on Papua New Guinea, but no timeline has been given.
Canberra’s policy of sending asylum-seekers who arrive by boat to outposts on Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Nauru was thrown into turmoil in April when a PNG court ordered the Manus Island centre closed.
Following talks with Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton in Port Moresby, PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said in a statement:
Both Papua New Guinea and Australia are in agreement that the centre is to be closed.
“It is important that this process is not rushed but carried out in a careful manner.”
Canberra has been under pressure to shut the Australian-funded Manus facility following a PNG Supreme Court ruling declaring that detaining people there was unconstitutional and illegal.
It is also facing criticism about the plight of asylum-seekers on the tiny Pacific state of Nauru, after thousands of leaked incident reports last week detailed allegations of widespread abuse and self-harm, including children wanting to kill themselves.
In a statement released shortly after O’Neill’s announcement, Dutton confirmed that his government had been working with PNG to close Manus.
He added that both countries would work together to support asylum-seekers and refugees transition to lives in the developing Pacific nation or return to their country of origin.
But he stressed there would be no changes to Australia’s policy of refusing to resettle asylum-seekers who arrive by boat, even if they are refugees.
Our position, confirmed again today with PNG, is that no one from Manus Island Regional Processing Centre will ever be settled in Australia.
Under ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia by boat are either sent back to where they departed from or transferred to Nauru and Manus.
The policy has been criticised by rights groups as essentially placing refugees in indefinite detention on remote Pacific islands.
But the government says it has stopped deaths at sea after a spate of drownings.
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‘reports last week detailed allegations of widespread abuse ‘
Just to clarify.
This abuse was carried out by the residents themselves.
Nothing to do with the native population.
What do you expect from the residents?
If hundreds/thousands of Irish were holed up on a tiny shack of an island off the coast of America 200 years ago you can bet there would have been widespread abuse
Such an ignorant comment. These people were detained in horrible conditions. And “natives” is an ironic thing to say about white Australians.
James>The natives of the islands would take objection to being called both white and Australian.
@Thinck: If you had to choose between two camps, one full of migrants from Arabia/Africa and one full of migrants from Europe – which would you choose?
Same population numbers, same layout, same location.
I have no idea what your question relates to George
“This abuse was carried out by the residents themselves.”
Well, some of it was. Most of it was related to the so called “security” employed by the Australian Government to “look after” the “residents”.
But then we don’t need facts when talking about these people, do we?
The Irish camp that you spoke of hypothetically. The one which you were implying would be just as bad as that in the news article.
“I have no idea what your question relates to George”
He’s suggesting “Arabia/Africa” migrants are less attractive for one to to be trapped with on a tiny island while being mistreated.
Seemingly being abused and raped would be much easier if you were surrounded by Europeans.
@Phil: Implying behaviour within the camp would be the same?
Out of the hundreds of men being held there along with the 55 women .. it was the security guards that were raping and abusing .. well that’s what they want us to believe …
It’s true that much abuse was by residents but to suggest all was is simply untrue. On top of that were not talking about a couple of fights, sexual abuse is at the fore. Does Australia not have a duty of care?
“The federal government has announced a further inquiry into children in detention on Nauru, investigating reports of abuse and sexual misconduct by staff against children. It will also look into allegations charity workers have coached children in making complaints and even in self-harm.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/03/nauru-child-sex-abuse-allegations-new-inquiry
Guardian Australia has obtained, from a number of sources, minutes of welfare meetings and a Transfield intelligence report, which detail some of the child protection and abuse concerns in Nauru camps.
Those documents show, in the week beginning 2 June:
A 17-year-old boy who attempted suicide with a razor after being told he was not allowed access to the internet.
A 16-year-old girl who told her case workers she had been tormented and sexually harassed by detention centre security guards. The girl reported a number of male Nauruan employees “have tried to hug her, kiss her, told her they would marry her and asked her to have a ‘sexy party’”.
A 17-year-old boy who attempted suicide by strangling himself.
A nine-year-old boy from a war-torn country who had begun bed-wetting, and pulling clumps of hair from his head. His mother talked openly about suicide, and “states that she wishes to be dead and would gladly kill herself, however this is a sin and she will be punished so will not do this”. The boy’s mother had discussed being returned to her country of origin because she “knows this will result in her being killed”.
An eight-year-old boy regularly in fights with other children, and who staff struggled to deal with because there was no interpreter who spoke his family’s language.
A 13-year-old boy who had only irregular access to his sleep medication, and who was uncontrollably manic at school after not sleeping for 24 hours. His mother was missing.
A 15-year-old boy who was not eating, and was “displaying signs of depression” after his father was taken to Brisbane in a medical emergency.
In the report for the week ending 13 April, reports raised concerns about:
An eight-year-old boy who bullied and fought with other children and had attacked teachers, but who cried under a blanket each night, hiding his distress from his parents.
Several children, the youngest aged four year, who had had both parents arrested for taking part in protests, and were left with no family to care for them.
An eight-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother who were attacked by other detainees because their father was accused of assaulting another detainee.
A 10-year-old boy who had to be physically restrained from attacking other children and had been banned from school because of the threat he posed to other students.
Guardian Australia has also obtained a copy of a Transfield Services intelligence report for Saturday 2 August. It shows:
Eight detainees were required to be under constant ‘line of sight’ monitoring, four for acts of self-harm.
One man, who had “self-harmed by banging head” was not permitted to be more than arm’s length from a guard at any time.
Three women were deemed high security risks because of attempts and threats of self-harm, and aggression towards staff.
Other detainees were on half-hourly monitoring, others on three-hourly, also because they had committed acts of self-harm, or were deemed “vulnerable”.
Guards were instructed to monitor detainees’ moods and whether people were refusing food and water.
After reading that i can only conclude our HSE are running that place…
@Tony: You’re right, it’s ridiculous to think there’s no mistreatment coming from the authorities. Most of the terrible behaviour is coming from the residents.
@Phil: Using cases of human suffering to avoid my question, good job.
Tony .. very true and it’s also a good thing that is being closed down ..
‘A 17-year-old boy who attempted suicide with a razor after being told he was not allowed access to the internet.’
Not belittling the situation but seriously?
What next?
No transgender toilets?
It doesn’t really matter what the result of any investigation is to some here. If this was an extermination camp for foreigners some I would say would probably applaud that.
Im actually done with this site
Its like a drunken argument outside a chippper on a Friday night
The xenophobes always have the loudest voices!
Au revoir Thinck. It’s been a blast.
Try the Irish Times.
There’s a safe space behind the pay wall there I believe.
@Thinck: I hope you’re not implying that I fear foreigners, while you exit the conversation.
@joey You enjoying somebody’s freedom to move… It must be Irony day.
@Phil: Using cases of human suffering to avoid my question, good job.
No, George, I am using facts to show that the abuse was perpetrated against the detainees by the people employed to protect them.
I know facts are difficult things for your people to grasp, but they are what they are no matter what weasel words you use to avoid dealing with them.
@Prouesse
Can I have the freedom to move into your gaff and help myself to the resources I am sure you earned with much effort? I’ll am fleeing for my life even though I skipped through many other peoples gaffs and have decided on yours. What I give in DIEversifying your apt will more than make up for you paying for my way. In fact Prouesse you will owe me for culturally enriching your whole life. It’ll be like a whole new you, think of it as population replacement, the old Prouesse replaced by the New Prouesse but still very much Prouesse, what’s the saying…we are all Prouesse now.
@Phil: It’s a fact that those employed at camps have dome terrible things. It’s a fact that those within camps have done terrible things. It’s a fact that you’ve only acknowledged one of those facts.
I’d prefer if you didn’t accuse me of doing what you’re doing. So are you going to answer my question now or do you have more cases of abuse to throw in my face like a smoke screen?
It is clear they are here because we are now allowing it, and they see a free-for-all. The amount of times I have seen them shout racist and scream blue bloody murder when no such thing was going on, is disgusting, they now know very well how to use all the race-card angles to dominate and subjugate the Irish. They are not refugees.
@steven
You are welcome BUT you will have to follow my rules which include imprisoning you on arbitrary basis, abusing you, blackmailing a shower for sex, calling you names, showing continuous contempt towards anything you are or allegedly represent, giving me any belonging you have, leaving to my discretion the right to kick you out or more once I am done with you.
Prouesse
Can I bring my fellow countrymen, all from Syria btw, imprisoning, (while being allowed into town whenever, no problem)?
Asylum-seeker saved from deportation by Lib Dem MP faces jail for VILE sex assault
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/700550/Asylum-seeker-sexual-assault-jail-Sri-Lankan-Sivarajah-Suganthan-lib-dem-stephen-williams
list documents more than 160 instances of rape and sexual assault committed by migrants in train stations, swimming pools and other public places against victims as young as seven.
http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/cologne-is-every-day-europes-rape-epidemic/news-story/e2e618e17ad4400b5ed65045e65e141d
“They are not refugees.”
Seventy seven percent on Nauru are recognised refugees. Ninety eight percent of those held on PNG are recognised refugees, Seven.
@steven All welcome BUT they will have to follow the rules mentioned above,and i’ll leave them rottin… waiting in a tiny warehouse on a tiny island while I don’t give a dam.. hm! while I am processing their requests…
no worries, just send them back to where they departed from. well that was a waste of a journey lads! take them in then expect this whole thing to continue. meanwhile here in bananaland the taxi service by sea continues, the message says its ok to sail a few kms out, ye’ll be picked up and taken 100s kms to europe, and then they wonder.
saps.
But leaving them drown…. “Teaches them a lesson” is it?
Many have been accepted as refugees but still held there.
Don’t be pointing out facts, Tony.
I would change ‘many’ to ‘most’ ..90% I do believe…
Francis .. 389 out of nearly 1,000
Sure,what would I know …
Sure what would I know ..different reports say different things ..
The entire point of camps like this was to stop deaths while attempting to enter Australia by boat James. An objective it was successful in achieving I might add.
That’s why they made sure it was on an island away from their main land….
Perhaps Jason, and perhaps it was also the Aussie gov paying off the traffickers. And the question for most isn’t about that success but what it takes to achieve it. Totally okay with any nation defending the integrity of their borders but there are many who have been officially deemed refugees who are being kept in conditions in which they are not protected.
Jason your continued defamation of refugees is growing thin there has been a noticeable downward spiral in your logic.
“Francis .. 389 out of nearly 1,000″
Well no.
As at 31 May 2016, of the 1,194 transferees who have had their claims for asylum assessed by the Nauruan Government, 915 (77 per cent) had been found to be refugees.
SEVENTY SEVEN PERCENT on Nauru.
Jesus, you people don’t do facts at all, do you?
As at 31 May 2016, of the 551 transferees who have had their claims for asylum assessed by the PNG Government, 541 (98 per cent) had been found to be refugees.
NINETY EIGHTY PERCENT in PNG.
A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.
“The entire point of camps like this was to stop deaths while attempting to enter Australia by boat James. An objective it was successful in achieving I might add.”
I’d like to think you actually believe that, Jason. It would at least make you naive, rater than mendacious.
But we know you don’t believe it. Nobody does.
But, even if it was true it in no way whatsoever excuses the Australian Government of their responsibility for the utterly appalling treatment of the people who ended up on Nauru and PNG.
You will, of course, bend over backwards, as only a spineless person like you would or could, to excuse the treatment and receive a torrent of green thumbs from the Journal’s Daily Mail brigade. You’ll probably even get Marg in chorus with a “yeah what he said”, such is the limit of her mental acuity to engage. But it doesn’t make you right, much as you’ll convince yourself it does.
Putting vulnerable people in these god forsaking hell holes ..c#nts!
“It’s indeterminate, it’s under terrible, terrible conditions, and there is nothing you can say about it that says there’s some positive humanity in this. And that’s why it’s such an atrocity.”
We had wars in 60′s, 70′s, 80′s etc, and they weren’t coming en masse to the west. They didn’t expect to and they did not see it as racist. They knew it was perfectly fine for every country to keep their country for their own people. Then the Open-Border Extremists started agitating to open our borders to destory European ethnicities, label it a sin and crime to oppose it, and voila, they all come, with hand out expecting entry simply because they saw us offering a free-for-all.
Well, it does appear that our own asylum seekers are positively pampered compared to them…by any measure. Even when ours are unsuccessful they still get to stay .
“Well, it does appear that our own asylum seekers are positively pampered compared to them…by any measure.”
Sure, and the children abused in the care of the Christian Brothers in Ireland were “positively pampered” compared to the children in Concentration Camps.
Still doesn’t make how they were treated right.
Phil…you sell yourself short with that historic whataboutery argument….you make your arguments well…quite impressive…i try to remain contemporary and leave the Kazetts and Christian Brothers where they belong..in history. My post was in relation to contemporary asylum seekers.
Well said Phil.
“Phil…you sell yourself short with that historic whataboutery argument….”
It wasn’t whataboutery, Peter. It was a simple comparison. Maybe you should ask an adult to explain to what that is.
“My post was in relation to contemporary asylum seekers.”
So was mine. Simply put – because both groups are treated appallingly, but one less appallingly then the other, does not mean the other group is actually treated well.
A cruel blow to those of us who believe in strong, safe and secure national borders.
Not if they mean it when they say “No one from Manus regional processing centre will ever be settled in Australia”. That seems clear enough.
I can only laugh at your use of the word “cruel” Sam.
Marg the boats will begin flowing back toward Australia now.
I think the Australians mean business. Hope so,anyway, show the west of the free world how not to be gullible fools like the Europeans and Canadians.
Most asylum seekers arrive by plane – the number of arrivals by boat has always been minuscule. The Howard government created this as an issue after 9/11 to get themselves voted back in. Successive governments have ran with it as an election issue for the same reasons. They have created this fear of the boat arrivals for their own ends, and spent billions on it, when taking a fair amount of asylum seekers would cost far less
@charlottemarg One might expect this lesson of democracy to teach you some humility… It’s expecting too much obviously.
” how not to be gullible fools”, you say. You should say “how to be undemocratic and sit on their on their own constitution”
prouesse, you know as well as I do things like human rights, concepts like respect and dignity, and even national laws don’t matter to people like Marg when it comes to dealing with brown people. What on earth makes you think she’d have any concern over something like democracy or a document like a national Constitution?
In fact, what on earth makes you think she’d even understand these concepts at all? If it’s not condemned by the Daily Mail or Storm Front she shouldn’t be expected to know about them at all.
phil, I guess I can’t help it. When there is a human brain, there is hope… hm! hm!
I note from recent publicised high court cases that in this country some deportation orders issued 10 years ago are still not enforced.
Yeah, but we’re talking about brown people here, Peter, so it’s OK for us to treat them like sub-humans.
Phil,after you have a good cry, maybe you can add to the debate.
From the chap who brought us “Hang the lawyers off the nearest tree.”, member of the Oxford Union you are not.
Compared to you Phil, he is.
says Charlottemarg who can mistake Charles Martel with Charlemagne…
Marg, the day you criticised me for knowing about the topic which was being discussed was the day you revealed yourself to be a ignorant anti-intellectual. The say you took delight in the horrible treatment of the people in these centers was the day you revealed yourself to be among the dregs of humanity.
The day you made such a big deal about how you were ignoring me, and then went on you respond to me not less than five minutes later revealed you as a useless distraction, nothing more than a poor parody of the angry ill informed racists who infest the comments sections here.
Your opinion of me is utterly worthless.
Since when did any country have to allow in en masse anyone who wants in?
As their populationss explode due to western aid and medical and financial help, it is not sustainable to allow in 100s of millions from Africa and Asia, help them in or near their own countries, anyone advocating anything else, is not concerned about poor people but is more concerned about their own image as humanitarian.
First there is no opposition between being concerned about poor people and being humanitarian. It is pretty much the opposite.
Second, it’s important to stick to the topic of the article which that a supreme court in Australia ruled that the conditions of detention are illegal and unconstitutional.
hm! hm!
he’ll be singing a different song when he’s up in the CCJ
Steven once again showing that he doesn’t recognise anyone’s claim to asylum by confusing refugees with migrants. Deliberately I suspect
“Deliberately I suspect”
Really? I put it down to pure ignorance.
Phil. You should keep your comment short and to the point. The fact that you go on and on and on and never fail to rise to the bait means you lost 30 minutes of your life, never to get it back. Do you ever learn?
@charlottemarg
Speaking of learning, who won the battle of Poitiers? was it Charlemagne or Charles Martel? lol
“Phil. You should keep your comment short and to the point. The fact that you go on and on and on and never fail to rise to the bait means you lost 30 minutes of your life, never to get it back. Do you ever learn?”
I thought you were ignoring me, Marg?
@phil. Naw. I ignore Proussese F. You’re too much fun.
Why did you say you were ignoring me then?
Throw them into general prison population. Their complaining will reach new heights
The lawyers for the detainees are also looking for compensation for them ..
Hang the lawyers off the nearest tree.
By that logic all the Irish in Australia should be thrown in prison too.
If they’re illegal migrants, they should be Derek.
I seriously doubt these people have the luxury of applying for visas through the proper channels….vast, vast majority are just trying to better their lives that are mostly the result of cowardice and ignorance of western people as we pillage their countries for natural resources that fund our materialistic lives.
Throw who? Genuine asylum seekers are not criminals.
Out of 850 men .. 389 were found to be genuine refugees . . Many are refusing to resettle in PNG because they feel its too unsafe. . Picking and choosing where they want to go perhaps ?
“Picking and choosing where they want to go perhaps ?”
Of course they are. When you risk your life to escape whatever hellhole an accident of birth saw you find yourself in you’d bloody well shoot for the stars, wouldn’t you?
Australia is selective about who it lets in, because it doesn’t need deadweight. Every country is entitled to look after its own interests by letting in people who will contribute and barring those who won’t. Europe tried the ‘welcome every b@sta rd and his dog’ approach, and seems to be finally waking up to the notion that maybe it wasn’t such a clever idea. Germany is finally enacting some laws to control the damage, but unfortunately it’s way to late in the day now. I don’t think Australia is going to fall into the same trap – Australia as a nation is generally more hard-minded and less obsessed with political correctness than Europe. So although they’re closing the detention centre, I’m confident that they’ll have an alternative plan and that none of those people will ever land in Australia. Proper order.
Phil .. no I wouldn’t . If I got through the process and was granted asylum then I would be very grateful to be resettled with chance to rebuild my life ..
“more hard-minded and less obsessed with political correctness than Europe.”
In other words, the government (I don’t speak of all the Australians) don’t give a damn about their own constitution. Great demonstration of democratic practices!
Some commenters here seem to miss the point: this race to the most nationalist (and xenophobic) speeches and practices are a clear threat to democracy and freedom.
@Phil Blanc,
They’re about as genuine as your name, “Phil”.
Phil, they might want to “bloody well shoot for the stars”, but that doesn’t mean they are entitled to go where they want. Those are two seperate things.
No..in other words, their decisions are based on logic, and what is best for their own citizens. Which is what every government’s decisions should be based on. The powers-that-be in Europe seem to base their decisions on some form of white guilt, and on the notion that somehow it is Europe’s divine obligation to take in and accommodate all comers, without a second thought given to how this will affect native Europeans. I don’t know whether the Germans have been subconsciously trying to attone for past wrongs, but they’ve done what they’ve done and Europe is suffering because of it. I don’t think Australia owes any apologies for not following suit.
@Fred, you may find, that every human has the right to go exactly wherever they want, it’s called Freedom of Movement
That statement is way off the mark Larissa. You’re posting a link to a Wikipedia article, and then ignoring what it says. It says that a citizen of any given country has the right to move around and work in that country. It doesn’t say that every human has a right to go exactly where they want. Sure maybe I’ll just stroll into your house, plant myself on the couch, put my mucky boots up on your coffee table, watch the telly and scratch myself. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind.
As a transsexual, Larissa obviously is very eager to be surrounded by homophobic Muslims from Africa and the Middle East.. Why? Who the fúck knows, but I’d imagine stupidity plays a significant role.
“They’re about as genuine as your name, “Phil”
What the f__k would an ignoramus like you know about them, Eamon? There is a process in place to establish if they are genuine, it is assiduously applied and 77% of them were found to be genuine.
But of course that’s never enough for people like you.
I hope that Australia stands firm over this, I would hate to see their lovely country turned into another backward Third World cesspit.
Like the one you crawled out of?
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus,
So you think Ireland is a “backward Third World cesspit”?
Maybe you’re right, it’s getting to look more like one every day.
@eamon You sound like you are crawling in the cesspit of backward ideas.
I don’t think Ireland is a “backward Third World cesspit”, Eamon.
But considering you wail about the foreigners and migrants here when you say “turned into another backward Third World cesspit” it woudl suggest you think that’s what Ireland has become.
@Phil Blanc,
Thanks tor explaining my own comment.
“Thanks tor explaining my own comment.”
And yet you chided Larissa for the exact same thing? You don’t get Irony, do you?
Phil, maybe you should read Eamon’s comment again and then Larissa’s comment …
then read them backwards five times and say Candyman in the mirror five times
And Marg appears.
“And Marg appears.”
lol
Sometimes you just have to laugh at these bigots.
We need to start using our remote islands in the West of Ireland to detain our refugees and asylum seekers.
Posting this in article that made it clear it was unconstitutional and illegal in a democratic country is pure genius.
There is plenty of lads on here that would jump at the chance to become a ‘nice’ security guard on those remote islands in the West of Ireland…. they would enjoy ‘looking’ after those refugees & asylum seekers..
I am sure there are many people in Ireland that would stand against such practices.
@prouesse f
I never knew Ireland adhered to the constitution of Papua New Guinea.
Idiot.
Chris mind your manners, you weren’t dragged up
as I said, pure genius.
Oh the irony!
The government treated people fleeing from misery, desolation and war, as is they were criminals. Now here we are. They are caught in practices considered as illegal in their own country!
I add: if the Australion constitution may be regarded as an emanation of democracy, then the way asylum seekers have been treated is quite undemocratic.
‘I add: if the Australion constitution may be regarded as an emanation of democracy, then the way asylum seekers have been treated is quite undemocratic.’
Has there been a referendum on the issue?
lol
lol
Why do we need a constitution since every thing can be sorted out by referendum?…
Sure what could go wrong with that?
*cough* abortion in Ireland *cough*
*cough* brexit *cough*
the point of this article is:
Nationalist (and xenophobic) speeches and practices are a clear threat to democracy and freedom.
Migrants and asylum seekers have become a pretext to impose unconstitutional practices. While obsessive focues is brought on frontiers. Barriers that protect democracy and freedom are being blown up. That is the serious threat that concerns every body.
Are you saying that the Australian constitution obliges Australia to let in everyone and anyone who shows up on their doorstep, regardless of anything? It sounds very much as though that’s what you’re saying.
You need to read my comment and the article again.
The government has implemented practices that against their own constitution. You don’t see anything wrong with that?
What practices? Holding people in detention? They are there of their own volition.
Learn how to read…
“PNG Supreme Court ruling declaring that detaining people there was unconstitutional and illegal.”
Prouesse, the far right Trump supporting xenophobic trolls on the journal have enough problems in getting their two brain cells to come together to manage to write a comment, you can’t seriously expect them to read an article, and to consider facts that go contrary their prejudices.
@larissa
It’s just that someone was expecting some decency from a racist troll yesterday. I thought it required a lot of optimism. I got inspired by his hopes.
Ah yes. Living in a world full of unenlightened ignoramuses. Surrounded by them all the time. Must be tough for ye. Commiserations. :-)
When you are dead, you do not know you are dead. It’s only painful and difficult for others. The same applies when you are stupid.
have your say