Refugees and asylum seekers still on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea are being robbed of their freedom, denied all hope and condemned to “terrible suffering”, according to World Vision Australia’s chief advocate, Tim Costello.
Mr Costello recently led a delegation representing Australian humanitarian agencies on a fact-finding mission to Papua New Guinea conducted under the auspices of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID).
Speaking as the delegation released a preliminary report from its mission, he said the indefinite nature of the situation facing the more than 600 men on Manus Island who were formerly held in the now closed Australian offshore detention centre is having a “most insidious and deep impact” on them.
“We are robbing them of their freedom, denying them all hope and condemning them to terrible suffering,” he said.
In their report, the delegation – which also included Marc Purcell, CEO of ACFID, and Meg Quartermaine, humanitarian manager at Oxfam Australia – found that the Australian Government is not fulfilling its responsibility to care for refugees and asylum seekers held in PNG and that PNG is “not a viable place of resettlement for a vast number of the refugees and asylum seekers”.
They have called upon the Australian Government to immediately send a humanitarian medical assistance team to visit refugees in Port Moresby and Manus Island and to evacuate those assessed to need urgent treatment to Australia and then bring all other refugees “swiftly” to Australia while settlement options are being pursued.
Mr Purcell said the delegation was calling on the Australian Government to “take immediate and concrete steps to bring an end to the crisis on Manus and end the suffering”.
“These men require appropriate medical treatment and psychosocial care and their resettlement should be fast tracked.”
Ms Quartermaine said the mental health crisis on Manus Island must be addressed.
“These men are distressed and they don’t know what the future holds. We urge the Australian Government to immediately arrange for these men to be evacuated to Australia so that they have access to appropriate medical care.”
The delegation, which have written a letter detailing its recommendations to both Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, spent seven days in PNG ending on Monday.
