There is no justice: Manus Island refugees
Refugees detained on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island say they are not surprised by the PNG Supreme Court’s decision not to order the restoration of vital services to the detention centre. About 600 refugees are refusing to leave the centre after food, water and power were cut last week when the facility was officially closed.
The refugees are resisting pressure to move to other buildings in the island’s main town, Lorengau. The Kurdish journalist and refugee Behrouz Boochani said the detainees were accustomed to being deprived of justice.
“We the refugees in Manus are outside of law and justice. There is no justice for the refugees and we are used to the court decision going against us. It is so frustrating when Australia is obviously violating human rights in Manus prison camp,” he said.
“While the Australian and PNG judicial systems are not able to provide justice for us, I am asking international courts to take action.” Sudanese refugee Abdul Aziz Adam said the court’s decision was predictable.
“It is not really a big deal because in the first place we did not have any hope on PNG courts... because of two reasons. Reason number one, we believe the jurisdiction of PNG is not really independent because Australia is involving in their jurisdiction. Two, we know that Australia now are politicising our case, so every time we go to court they are trying to put pressure on PNG authority and then they are turning all the decisions of the court against us,” he said.
“Our message is clear to the rest of the world, we are determined to stay in here.”
A lawyer representing the men, Ben Lomai, said the court rejected his application to stop the PNG government from transferring the refugees from the detention centre at Lombrum to Lorengau.