An asylum seeker who suffered serious burns to his face in Iran before fleeing to Australia has initiated a class action in the Supreme Court against the Australian government, Transfield and the former security contractor G4S on Manus Island for negligence.

The 34-year-old Iranian man Majid Karami Kamasaei, who was held in the Manus Island offshore processing centre for 11 months before being transferred to Melbourne for medical treatment, says he has experienced severe pain and irritation to his skin after health workers confiscated his medication on the island.

Burns victim Iranian man Majid Karami Kamasaei.

Fairfax Media revealed in June his allegations that he was intentionally being denied medical treatment to ease painful complications from severe burns, in a bid to convince him to return home. Mr Kamasaei arrived on Christmas Island last year with the prescribed medications he needed to keep the keloid scar tissues on his face and neck from cracking and contracting. But he told friends and advocates they were taken away from him and had not been replaced.

Mr Kamasaei was moved to Manus Island where his condition had continued to deteriorate making it difficult for him to speak or to eat. He said to friends he had been told he could either return to Iran and resume his medical treatments there or wait on Manus Island for his asylum application to be processed, but without any treatment. He suffered the burns when he was a teenager rescuing his brother from a fire in an apartment block in Iran.