Iranian Resistance strongly condemns the shocking and disgusting behaviour toward asylum seekers who have been forcibly transferred from Australia to the remote island of Manos in Papua New Guinea, and are in effect being held in detention there, and condemned it as a flagrant violation of the holy asylum principle and other international conventions and treaties. Reiterating that the Australian government is responsible for the safety and security of these asylum seekers, Iranian Resistance calls for active intervention of parliament, political parties and organizations advocating refugee rights in Australia to end this human tragedy, and urges them to help these asylum seekers, especially the Iranian asylum seekers, and not allow them to suffer more pain while they have fled from the hell created by the mullahs’ regime.
The Iranian Resistance also calls for the UN Secretary-General and High Commissioner for Refugees to address this humanitarian issue, and calls on European countries to accept these asylum seekers and save them from the current dire situation.
Last year, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea regarded detention of people in this camp as an illegal imprisonment and called for the camp to be closed down. Instead of accommodation of these asylum seekers in safe places, Australia has asked them to go to the island of Nauru in the Pacific Ocean or another country, such as Cambodia, or return to Iran.
On Tuesday, October 31st, the water and electricity of the camp was cut off to force asylum seekers to leave the camp, and all the staff and guards of the camp have left it. It is said that the Papua New Guinea army seeks to occupy the camp. These asylum seekers, many of whom are Iranians and there are hundreds of children among them, refuse to leave the camp in fear of a terrible fate.
For many years, Australia has been using camps with inhumane conditions in Manus and several other camps in the Nauru islands to accommodate asylum seekers. Inhumane treatment against asylum seekers in these camps has led to the deaths of some of them, while according to the Australian Parliament (December 2016), 79% of Nauru residents and 82% of the residents of Manus are considered “asylum seekers”.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
October 31, 2017