Fazileh Mansour Beigi has pleaded with the Australian Border Force to give her son Fariborz’s body back so she can bury him

The mother of Fariborz Karami, the Iranian asylum seeker who died by suicide on Nauru two weeks ago, has pleaded with the Australian Border Force to give her son’s body back so she can bury him “anywhere but Nauru or Iran”.

In an excoriating letter written to the ABF, Fazileh Mansour Beigi blames those who held her son on Nauru for his long mental decline and ultimate suicide.

“For five years you incarcerated me and my innocent children in Nauru and ignored us. I know that your violence and cruelty is deeply rooted and against that I am a powerless woman. You even deprived me from having a mobile phone, lest I speak up? But I always told you if any harm befell my children, I wouldn’t remain silent,” she has written.

“My 26-year-old son had his last breaths in your mouldy tents and closed his beautiful eyes to your abomination, injustice, and disgusting policies.”



In the lead-up to her son’s death, Mansour Beigi repeatedly pleaded for help for her two sons, arguing they were severely depressed and in danger. Just two days before Karami’s death, his mother wrote to camp manager Canstruct, contracted by the Australian government to run the regional processing centre, warning that “if my kids and I get worse, you will be responsible”.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Part of Mansour Beigi’s letter to the ABF in which she warned that ‘if any harm befell my children, I wouldn’t remain silent.’

Karami, whose initial claim for protection had been rejected, had recently married a refugee on Nauru. On the morning of 15 June, he was found unconscious by a family member in the tent he lived in inside the Australian-run regional processing centre. He could not be revived.

Mansour Beigi, who, in the wake of her son’s suicide, is on “high watch” and monitored by guards 24 hours a day everywhere she goes, says she wants to bury her eldest child as soon as possible, but not in Nauru or their homeland Iran. But Mansour Beigi says too, she is consumed by fears for the health and future of her youngest child, 12-year-old Ali, who, doctors have said, is at acute mental health risk and should be moved from the island.

An autopsy has been completed on Karami’s body, but his mother says she has been told it could be three months before she is told its findings, and her son’s body is released to her for burial.

Karami’s wife is on a hunger strike, drinking only water. She is sleeping outside the connex container where her husband’s body is being kept.

Mansour Beigi has given permission for Guardian Australia to publish her letter in full.

Hello my oppressors and heartless prison officers, Hello again ABF, Do you know me? I am the same suffering and miserable mother who repeatedly begged you to help. Frequently, I implored you to assist me. An ill mother who could not stand to see her children in this situation any more. Often, I told you and I wrote to you that my sons are depressed and exhausted ‘please help a sick and feeble mother’. But, instead of support, you replied that if I couldn’t tolerate it, I should return to my country. Again I made a complaint to you and I wrote that after five years facing torture, I am not able to go back to my country. I asked you to please upgrade our tent as it might change my kids’ mood. Again you ignored me. For five years you incarcerated me and my innocent children in Nauru and ignored us. I know that your violence and cruelty is deeply rooted and against that I am a powerless woman. You even deprived me from having a mobile phone, lest I speak up? But I always told you if any harm befell my children, I wouldn’t remain silent. Since Friday, you have kept my son’s corpse in IHMS’s fridge, to look for his murderer? Since then, have you not smelled your own hands? My 26-year-old son had his last breaths in your mouldy tents and closed his beautiful eyes to your abomination, injustice, and disgusting policies. You even hesitate to provide him a bottle of cold water.

For five years, you tortured his athletic body under deadly heat. Now, you confiscated his dead body and keep him in a cold place. You don’t allow me to bury him and entrust him to eternal peace with his beautiful face and body.

I doubt if you are human! Where in the world would they keep a young corpse in the fridge for long time, inside a connex [container] near a place his mother is living? Are you even scared of our dead bodies? Do you hate us that much that you are afraid of us alive or dead? You still disrespect us. I prop myself up until I bury my son’s body with respect otherwise all the world is meaningless for me and not worthy even to breathe. If you don’t want to have another corpse, lying next to my son, as soon as possible give me written permission to bury him anywhere except Nauru and Iran. Fariborz’s mournful mother,

Fazileh Mansour Beigi Slaughterhouse and torture house of Nauru

24/6/2018

In response to a series of questions regarding Karami, a spokesman for the Australian department of home affairs told Guardian Australia: “These are matters for the Nauruan authorities”.

Karami’s body remains refrigerated on the grounds of the regional processing centre, which is run by contractors to the Australian government, and is under Australian control. Guardian Australia has put questions to the Nauru government.

• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org