Iranian asylum seeker found dead in apparent suicide

SYDNEY: An Iranian asylum-seeker was found dead yesterday on the remote island of Nauru in what refugee advocates say was an apparent suicide, some five years after Australia sent him to the tiny Pacific nation.

Canberra has sent asylum-seekers who try to enter the country by boat to camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island. They are barred from resettling in Australia.

The harsh policy is designed to deter people embarking on treacherous sea journeys, but the United Nations and other rights groups have criticised the camps’ conditions and long detention periods.

Australia’s home affairs department said it was aware of the death on Nauru but referred further enquiries to authorities in that country.

The Refugee Action Coalition’s Ian Rintoul said the 26-year-old died from an apparent suicide, with the exact means to be confirmed.

“News of the man’s death has shattered the asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru,” he said.

“He was a well known, well liked, athletic young man who did everything he could for his brother and mother.”

The man’s family said he suffered from depression and had made pleas to Canberra to help him.

Mr Rintoul said the Australian government had continually ignored calls for support, with all refugees offshore suffering from varying mental health issues.

“There have been so many warnings, but the toll mounts day by day; the neglect continues,” he said. “So many cases of medical neglect.”

This is the fifth death on Nauru since Australia’s offshore detention regime began in July 2013, Mr Rintoul said.

A Rohingya refugee from Myanmar died last month on Manus Island after jumping from a bus — the seventh asylum-seeker death there since 2013.

Canberra has tried to resettle those recognised as refugees to third countries such as the US, and more than a hundred have been moved there.

But the Refugee Action Coalition says 1,600 people remain on Nauru and Manus.