Asylum seekers in Australia’s offshore camps in limbo

Hassaballa, a Sudanese refugee, arrived by boat at Australia’s Christmas Island in October 2013. Three days later, he was sent by Australian authorities to Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, where he has languished ever since in camps with dilapidated facilities. He said there is no end in sight.

“I never thought I would be in this situation for five years. Never,” said Hassaballa, whom the United Nations has deemed a refugee.

“The current situation is like hell. I did not think I would have to go through this traumatising experience. It is opposite to what I had thought,” he said.

On July 19, 2013, the Labor government in Australia introduced a strict policy of permanently denying refugees who arrived by boat any chance of resettling in the country. They were instead sent to remote offshore camps on Manus and the island nation of Nauru.

Manus and Nauru are located in the southern Pacific ocean. Manus is some 1,000 km from Australia’s northeastern coast while Nauru is about 3,000 km away from the continent.

Later in 2013, conservative prime minister Tony Abbott took power and introduced a military-led policy of sending refugee boats back to their points of departure.

More than 3,100 asylum seekers and refugees were taken to Manus and Nauru by Australia.

About 1,600 remain there. More than 300 have been resettled in the United States, while some 400 have been moved to Australia with deteriorating health conditions after court orders, while the rest have returned to their home countries.

Behrouz Boochani, an Iraniankurdish refugee, is among those still being detained. He arrived on Christmas Island on July 23, just four days too late. A month later, he was hauled off to Manus Island.

“Many refugees who arrived just before us by boats were allowed to stay on Christmas Island. They were not exiled to Manus and most of them are now in Australia,” Boochani said.

But along with some 700 other men, Boochani has been in limbo on Manus for five years.

“It is a long time. It is very hard to say anything after such a longtime,” Boochani said.

“We are living in extremely harsh conditions. We have lost so many things and people. Refugees have died. Many are damaged mentally and physically. Each day is worse and worse,” he added.

Australian officials, who are extremely secretive about the situation in the camps, have defended the policy as “harsh but effective” because it largely deters people from taking the boat journey.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has denounced the policy, calling it “a hellish legal limbo marked by great uncertainty.”

“The fifth anniversary of depositing people in misery and suffering on isolated Pacific islands... should be viewed with outrage,” said Elaine Pearson, Australia director at HRW.

“Australia has gone from being a country that welcomed immigrants to a world leader in treating refugees with brazen cruelty,” Pearson added.

Boochani said Australia has “lost its soul.”

“They have forgotten about humanity and human rights. They have lost all morality. There isn’t much difference between Australia and dictatorship in some of the countries,” he said.

It is unlikely that people like Hassaballa and Boochani would be sent to the US now because of the Trump administration’s policy not to accept anyone from seven Muslimmajority countries.

For Boochani, the uncertainty is weighing on refugees’ spirits. When he first arrived, he thought he was going to be on Manus for four to six months.

“I could not have imagined that after five years I would still be here. And I still don’t know what will happen,” Boochani said.

“We don’t know how long we will be here. Not knowing is actually killing us,” he said.

More than 3,100 asylum seekers and refugees were taken to Manus and Nauru. About 1,600 remain there. 300 have been resettled in US and 400 moved to Australia with deteriorating health conditions after court orders