Medical mayday adds to Manus mayhem
A REFUGEE in the Manus Island detention centre stand-off collapsed with heart pain overnight and waited more than four hours for Papua New Guinean authorities to take him to hospital.
It comes as Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has accused the Greens of using the remaining refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island for political ends.
“It’s quite distressing to see the Greens ramping up the tempo on Manus Island because I don’t want to see any incident there. It’s clear the Greens do,” Mr Dutton told ABC radio yesterday.
Greens MP Adam Bandt on Saturday labelled Mr Dutton a “terrorist” over his handling of the centre’s closure.
The man who collapsed is among 600 refugees and asylum seekers barricaded inside the mothballed detention cen- tre, which closed on Tuesday. Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani said one of his countrymen collapsed about 7.30pm on Saturday.
“Some of the refugees tried to look after him and we tried to help him,” Mr Boochani said.
The refugees frantically tried to phone some emergency contact numbers as well as the PNG Navy and Australian Border Force trying to get help.
Mr Boochani said some refugees later flagged down a PNG police car and the officers told them to wait until morning.
“They said if anyone tries to come to pick him up they cannot enter the navy base,” he said.
“Finally PNG immigration sent a car and picked up the sick refugee, after more than four-and-a-half hours since he collapsed.”
Mr Boochani said the refugee was taken to Lorengau hospital half an hour away however it didn’t have adequate equipment to deal with his condition.
“After a few hours without any medical treatment they sent the sick refugee back,” he said.
“He is in a critical situation and needs to be examined by doctors who can help him.”
The man had a long history of heart pain and had seen two specialists in Port Moresby in February who had recommended treatment in Australia. That request was denied.