Loghman Sawari being held incommunicado in PNG, after being forced on to a plane by Fijian police

Loghman Sawari, the Iranian refugee summarily deported from Fiji, is being held incommunicado in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, more than 24 hours after he was snatched off the streets of Suva and forced on to a plane.

His Fijian lawyer, Aman Ravindra-Singh, said Sawari’s forced deportation, in defiance of an agreement with the country’s immigration director, was the illegal work of “hoodlum and thugs”, while the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said of Sawari that it was “profoundly concerned for his welfare”.

Sawari, who was a child when he was erroneously sent by the Australian government to the adult men’s only Manus Island detention centre, fled PNG after three years in that country, during which time he was beaten, abused, and left homeless.

He boarded a flight to Fiji last week under a false name, and had publicly declared from Nadi his intention to seek asylum in that country. But, driving with his lawyer to meet with Fiji’s director of immigration, he was stopped and arrested by police, who forced him into a car and drove him to the airport. He was flown straight out of the country and disappeared.

Two backpacks belonging to Sawari – containing everything he owns – have been left behind in Fiji.

Landing in Port Moresby, Sawari was held inside the airport for more than five hours, before being driven out of the international terminal by immigration officers in a dark blue LandCruiser with dark windows. It is not known where he has been taken.

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Behrouz Boochani, a fellow Iranian refugee and journalist on Manus Island, said no one had been able to contact Sawari since he sent a pleading message as he was being forced on to the flight from Suva.



“I’m in a plane and they are sending me back. They arrested me and beat me,” Sawari said. He said “dangerous people” were trying to hurt him, and he asked his friend to “tell everyone”.

Boochani told The Guardian that since that message no one had been able to speak to Sawari, or ascertain exactly where he was being held.

“I have tried to find out where he is and what’s happened to him, but there is no news. Loghman has not been able to speak to anyone since he got back to PNG.

“I’m worried for his safety. They have probably sent him to jail. I know how prisons are dangerous in PNG.”



Behrouz said hundreds of people were trying to contact Sawari, and no one could find him.

“I have to share my worry about Loghman and ask from Australian and PNG immigration where is he and what have you done with him? Australia and PNG are responsible for him and Fiji deported him back to a harsh condition that he fled.”

The Fijian human rights lawyer representing Sawari, Aman Ravindra-Singh, told a press conference he had an agreement with Fiji’s immigration director that Sawari would present his claim for asylum on Friday morning.

“We took the date as Friday, which was mutually agreed by the director ... I proposed Friday and it was accepted, in good faith, because I had to gather the documents to support his application.

“We had to bring in documents from PNG, we have to bring in documents from Australia and that was very important and we kept to our timeline, we did not ask for an extension and we were on our way this morning to Suva, to meet with the director to present our application for asylum.”

Ranvindra-Singh said six police officers stopped his car as he drove with Sawari to Suva to present Sawari’s claim for asylum. They forcibly grabbed Sawari from the car, saying “we are taking him”. The officers pushed Sawari into a car and drove off with him. Sawari was “frantically shaking” and crying as he was taken away.

Ravindra-Singh said the sudden arrest and deportation of an asylum seeker – without first assessing his claim for protection – was an act of thuggery.

“Dark things happened ... enforcers, hoodlums, and thugs, that’s what we saw. No one could speak about the law today. The police were pathetic, they had no idea what the law was, the immigration department did not know what the law was, showing me the letter and pulling it away in five seconds. Is that how you behave? Is that how you legitimise your illegal activities?”

Fiji is a party to the refugees convention and is legally obliged to assess Sawari’s claim for protection. It is unlawful, until the convention, for Fiji to return Sawari to a place where he faces harm.

In a statement, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said it had sought assurances from the Fijian government that Sawari would be allow to seek asylum.

“All asylum-seekers are entitled to have their claims for refugee status considered fairly and in accordance with the 1951 Refugee Convention, to which Fiji is signatory. UNHCR deeply regrets that interventions to prevent Mr Sawari’s forced return were not successful, and is profoundly concerned for his welfare.

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“The UNHCR has long called for refugees and asylum-seekers currently in Papua New Guinea to be moved to humane conditions outside of the country. Equally, UNHCR has urged that no refugees or asylum seekers should be returned there.”

The Guardian first met Sawari in 2015 on Manus Island. His time under Australia’s offshore detention policy, he said, had been marked by violence and deprivation.



Sawari is an Ahwazi Arab, an ethnic minority in Iran that faces significant, often violent, political persecution at the hands of the Iranian state, as well as discrimination over employment, language, housing and civil rights.

Sawari fled Iran at his mother’s urging after his two brothers were imprisoned and tortured by the country’s theocratic regime and a cousin was publicly hanged for his opposition to the government.

Sawari carries a picture with him of his defiant relative kissing the hangman’s rope as it is fastened around his neck.

Sawari was 17 years old when he arrived on Christmas Island and Australia forcibly moved him to Manus Island, where he was placed in the adult men’s-only detention centre.

He was sent to Manus despite carrying a photocopy of his national identity document that showed his birthdate, and telling immigration officials he was under 18.

Conceding the error, the Australian immigration department refused to repatriate him to Australia, instead holding him in an isolation room until he had turned 18.

Recognised as a refugee and moved to Manus’s secondary detention camp, the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre, Sawari was allegedly assaulted by a guard when he asked for more washing powder. The guard punched him to the ground and he required hospitalisation.

An attempt to resettle Sawari in Lae, one of PNG’s most dangerous cities, collapsed after he was forced out of his accommodation and lost his job after a dispute with a housemate he says was motivated by his refugee status. Sawari ended up homeless and was forced to sleep on the steps of the police station.



He tried to return to detention but was refused, and had spent the past few months living in Port Moresby, where he said he felt in constant danger.

“That place is not safe for me,” he said. “I was in danger every day. And my situation is the same for everyone in detention on Manus and Nauru. My voice is speaking for all of them, we are not safe there.”

During his conversation with The Guardian, Sawari repeated constantly, almost like a mantra, that he sought only freedom.

“I don’t want money,” he said. “I don’t want go Australia. I want to go for a country for freedom. Freedom, only freedom. I need only freedom.”

Sawari is believed to be in police custody somewhere in the PNG capital, but he has not been able to speak to anyone.

The PNG foreign minister, Rimbink Pato, said Sawari was likely to face charges for leaving the country irregularly.

“Tendering false statements or documents as part of any application for a passport or travel document is a criminal offence in PNG. Breaches will be investigated and those breaking the law will be prosecuted.”

He is likely to face charges for leaving the country under a false name, Pato told Fairfax.