Amin Afravi's room in Manus Island regional processing centre after he lit his bed on fire. "I eat and sleep, like an animal. And they treat us like s*** in here … if I die, I think it's better than this s*** life." This is not the first time that Amin, 28, has tried to self-immolate. About five weeks ago, he says he tried to light himself on fire, but was stopped by security guards. He received minor burns to his face. He has also sewn his lips together in the past. Amin, father of a five-year-old boy in Iran, is being treated with anti-depressants. He receives substandard medical care for a severe case of psoriasis - which he says is so itchy and sore that it hurts to go to the toilet, and to shower, describing the sensation as like feeling "acid" on his skin.

Amin Afravi's room in Manus Island regional processing centre after he lit his bed on fire. He says he also has an untreated prostate problem. And despite serious attempts at self-harm, Amin states he has still not received any counselling, or any other mental health support. Amin Afravi is an Iranian refugee on the Manus Island regional processing centre. "They checked my blood pressure - everything - and said, 'you don't have anything' because I didn't get burned," he said of the treatment he received after Friday's self-immolation attempt.

A Department of Immigration and Border Protection spokesman confirmed that a "minor fire" at the Manus Island centre was extinguished on Friday afternoon. He said one resident was "suspected to have suffered minor injuries from smoke inhalation" and was "offered medical assistance and is being monitored on-site". Amin Afravi was slashed in the neck with a knife during the violent 2014 riot. He believes the wound was not treated properly. They said there was "no information to suggest the small fire at the Manus RPC today was the result of a self-immolation attempt". Amin said he fled Iran for his own safety, believing that he was at risk of being imprisoned due to his political dissidence. Amin Afravi suffered minor burns to his face after he tried to self-immolate about five weeks ago.

He arrived at Christmas Island in mid-2013, before being transported to Manus. Over the years, as well as developing a severe case of psoriasis and prostate problems, he says a slash to his neck during the 2014 riot has never been treated properly. Amin sewed his lips together in protest. The private medical contractor on the island is International Health and Medical Services. A source who is in close contact with Amin and other detainees at Manus Island says self-harm and suicide attempts occur daily.

Amin has a severe case of psoriasis which he believes is not being treated properly. The attempts involve swallowing razor blades, drinking shampoo, eating washing powder, self-immolating and hanging. "It [suicide] is a continual risk ... and he [Amin] is not the only person there who has or who thinks about suicide very frequently. There would be hundreds." Several asylum seekers sent to Manus Island have died. One was murdered during riots that swept through the detention centre, another detainee died from septicaemia after cutting his foot and another who drowned at a waterfall. Iranian 23-year-old refugee Omid Masoumali self-immolated in April in Nauru, yet his wife said it took about 24 hours for a medical airlift team to transport him to an Australian hospital.

That same week, Somali refugee Hodan Yasin, 21, sustained severe burns to 70 per cent of her body and lost fingers after attempting to self-immolate on Nauru. She was denied basic levels of social support over nearly five months of treatment including specialist trauma counselling for refugees, according to media reports. In May, a mentally ill female Iranian refugee at Nauru locked herself in her family's unit and set it alight, but was rescued by a security officer before firefighters arrived. That same month, a Bangladeshi man died of suspected heart failure on the island after a medication overdose, alleged to have been deliberate. Incident logs from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection covering one year, obtained by Fairfax Media under freedom of information laws, revealed that in the year to July 2015 there were 188 incidents of self-harm involving asylum seekers at Nauru, about one every two days. There were 55 such self-harm acts at Papua New Guinea's Manus Island. Dr Barri Phatarfod, a general practitioner and president of Doctors for Refugees, said Amin's case undermined official statements that detainees on the island receive care comparable to that received by Australians. "You've heard it straight from the individual after the event. That person has not been offered even the most basic of counselling and that is out of step with what we expect in Australia. This is just one example of how the health care given to these people differs so dramatically from what we expect in Australia.

"The fact that he has had this sort of care doesn't surprise me." The Australian Medical Association has long called for greater scrutiny of detention centre operations and the provision of health services to asylum seekers. AMA President Dr Michael Gannon said the association regularly receives reports detailing failure to provide proper physical and mental health treatment and services for asylum seekers. He recently pointed to revelations in the recent leaking of more than 2000 incident reports from staff at the Nauru Regional Processing Centre and a scathing assessment of conditions at the centre by a joint Amnesty International-Human Rights Watch investigation. "These disturbing reports echo long-held concerns by the AMA about the lack of proper physical and mental health care being provided to people in immigration detention," Dr Gannon said.

"The reports detail high levels of trauma and mental illness, especially in children being detained on Nauru." A spokesman said "the Department's contracted health services provider ensures appropriate medical and mental health care is provided to all residents of the centre". "PNG authorities are investigating the cause of the fire," they said. "The centre remains calm." Anyone needing support can contact Lifeline: 13 11 14 www.lifeline.org.au; or Beyondblue: 1300 224 636 www.beyondblue.org.au.