PNG authorities destroy shelters
Police say ‘almost 60 refugees have voluntarily boarded buses’
Papua New Guinea authorities destroyed makeshift shelters and removed water stores in a shuttered Australia refugee camp yesterday, just hours ahead of a deadline for the inmates to leave or be forced out, detainees said.
The Manus Island camp held asylum seekers who tried to reach Australia by boat under Canberra’s tough immigration policy, but was ruled unconstitutional by PNG’s Supreme Court and closed on October 31.
Some 600 men barricaded themselves in the camp despite water and electricity being cut off, citing fears of a hostile reception from locals near three new transition centres set up for them.
“Everyone in the tropics knows how precious water is and how quickly dehydration can become a serious medical issue,” Refugee Action Coalition’s Ian Rintoul said in a statement of the authorities’ actions.
Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian refugee on Manus, tweeted that shelters were torn down and rubbish bins used to collect rainwater had been destroyed.
“Police and immigration destroyed our shelters. Inside the rooms is very hot without power for fans. We built these shelters to provide shade & cover from tropical sun & rain,” he wrote.
He said workers on Thursday had also removed security fences around the centre.
An injunction sought by Boochani to restore water, power and food supplies to the camp was rejected by PNG’s Supreme Court Tuesday, with his appeal to be heard Monday.
PNG police said yesterday that “almost 60 refugees have voluntarily boarded buses and open back trucks with their cargoes to their new locations”.