A leaked video urges refugees to leave the Australian-run detention centre on Manus Island and settle in Papua New Guinea but asylum seekers are refusing

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Refugees incarcerated in the Manus Island detention centre are “choosing to deny themselves freedom” the Papua New Guinea government has told them, in a video urging them to agree to be resettled in the country.

But many, possibly hundreds, of the 934 men still held in the detention centre – some of whom have been in detention there 27 months – are refusing to be resettled, saying they fear being released into the PNG community.

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“I will stay inside the detention centre for the rest of my life rather than go to PNG,” one refugee told Guardian Australia. “I never ever dream I could have a future in this inferno. Hundreds here, they feel same way like me.”

On Friday morning, PNG immigration officials and staff from Australia’s department of immigration and border protection visited all of the compounds in the Manus detention centre.



They arrived with interpreters and played a video detailing proposed resettlement arrangements for PNG and urged those found to be refugees to agree to be resettled.



A written transcript of the video, leaked to Guardian Australia, says: “Papua New Guinea is a land of great opportunities for those who embrace them. We have abundant resources and a growing economy. There are large migrant communities in PNG that live safe and very successful lives here. Those of you who are refugees, will have great futures here.”

The video urged viewers to accept a transfer to the Australian-funded $137m East Lorengau transit centre on the outskirts of Lorengau township. About 40 refugees have already been moved to the new centre.

“You have spent a long time at the Manus regional processing centre and there is no reason for refugees to stay there. If you choose not to relocate, you are choosing to deny yourself freedom.”

The video explained that refugees who accept resettlement in PNG will be required to complete an acculturation course called Wei Bilong PNG, at East Lorengau, and then offered voluntary work.

Refugees will be helped into housing, a recruitment agency will help them find jobs, and they will have case workers assisting them for six months.

No refugees will be settled on Manus, only in other parts of PNG. It is understood the vast majority are likely to end up in the capital, and economic hub, Port Moresby.

Refugees will be eligible to apply for citizenship after eight years, but they may be able to bring their families to PNG before then, after they have a job and have “established themselves”.

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Asylum seekers in detention whose claim to refugee status was rejected by PNG would be deported, the video said. Those who agreed to be returned to their country of origin would receive an unspecified amount of financial assistance, those who did not cooperate would be forcibly deported without any help.

Many of the asylum seekers and refugees in Manus detention centre have told Guardian Australia they do not believe the government’s video and say they will not accede to resettlement elsewhere in PNG. Several dozen have refused to present their refugee claims to officials.

“I was here during the riot [in February 2014 when Reza Barati was killed], I have seen a lot of shitty stuff,” one asylum seeker told Guardian Australia on Friday.

“The PNG guys beaten us like dogs, disrespect us. I was thrown in the biggest jail in Manus, I have seen the way they treated us and the prisoners, it was very harsh. Compared with my country, I felt no difference.”

Asylum seekers and refugees say the video has not allayed their concerns about their futures in PNG.

“After 27 months, they are still playing with our mental health every day,” a man told Guardian Australia. “Everyone here worry about his future, we can’t sleep well or eat well because of the unstable situation here.”



Another said: “Everybody know they don’t have any plan to resettle people in PNG. They came to us and said this big lie, every month they come to us and threaten people. I think this policy is working by lie and I believe it is cruelty, torture.”

Those in detention are fiercely mistrustful of the Australian and PNG governments, and relations between local guards and asylum seekers inside the detention centre have been strained almost since the PNG detention centre was reopened in 2012.

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Threats and acts of violence are common, and the undercurrent of hostility erupted into open rioting during three days of unrest in February last year. Sixty asylum seekers were injured, including one who was shot and another who lost an eye and several teeth after being beaten with rifle butts. Reza Barati was beaten to death.

No refugee transferred to PNG by Australia has been resettled in the country.

Friday’s video presentation follows an announcement by Papua New Guinea’s foreign minister, Rimbink Pato, that the PNG government’s national executive council had endorsed a national refugee policy this week.

“Papua New Guinea has a proud tradition of helping people in need,” Pato said. “This policy affirms our humanitarian values and our strong regional leadership.”

PNG’s announcement was welcomed by the Australian immigration minister, Peter Dutton, who said the new policy showed the Pacific nation’s “commitment to permit those found to be refugees to get on with their lives and have a fresh start in this dynamic nation with a growing economy”.

The opposition’s immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, said while the regional resettlement arrangement with PNG had prevented deaths at sea, the fact that not a single refugee had been resettled in the country was evidence the Coalition had mismanaged an important bilateral relationship and failed to actively engage with Port Moresby.