“That is a good idea. We should do that, too. You are worse than I am,” said Trump, according to a transcript of the call published by The Washington Post last week.

The policy is highly contentious in Australia. More than 1,000 people are being held in refugee detention centers funded by Australia but located on the Pacific islands of Manus (part of Papua New Guinea) and Nauru. Interviews with detainees have revealed fetid, even anarchic conditions at the sites. A United Nations report found that 88 percent of detainees examined by doctors on Manus showed signs of depressive, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorders.

In April 2016, Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court ordered that the Manus center be closed. Water and electricity have been cut off to parts of the site, and full closure is expected by an Oct. 31 deadline.

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The Obama administration had made a deal with Australia to take in hundreds of people from Manus and Nauru, and though Trump lambasted the decision in his call with Turnbull, it appears that the United States will honor the agreement, which is moving along slowly.

The urgency of the situation has been heightened by the deaths of seven people in the detention centers since 2013. The latest occurred Monday. An Iranian man named Hamed Shamshiripour, who had been suffering from bouts of depression, apparently hanged himself at an elementary school near the Manus site. His body was discovered by children.

The chief medical officer of Australia’s immigration department, John Brayley, was aware of the severity of Shamshiripour's condition a full year ago, according to emails shared with The Post by the advocacy group Doctors for Refugees. Over the course of months, doctors with the group begged Brayley to intervene.

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“Australia cannot preside over a man's mental health in this fashion in 2017,” they wrote in an email dated Jan. 11. “It's nothing less than medieval.”

“Appropriate care for acute and urgent psychiatric disorders is virtually nonexistent for those in detention, especially offshore,” said Barri Phatarfod, the group's president.

Brayley declined an interview with the Guardian on Tuesday, and an email from The Post was awaiting response. The Australian government has directed all inquiries around Shamshiripour's death to Papua New Guinea authorities, who are investigating.

Those suffering from mental illness and post-traumatic stress disorder in the detention centers may have carried the conditions with them from their countries of origin or developed them in the centers, Phatarfod said.

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Shamshiripour was the subject of numerous reports by doctors on Manus, who said he had “become a danger to stakeholders and residents alike with his erratic and unpredictable behavior,” according to documents obtained by the Guardian. After a psychotic episode, he was put in a jail for a month. Fellow detainees who were friends of his said he was beaten there.

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Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian journalist also housed on Manus who often speaks with the international press, said he knew Shamshiripour well. He said detainees' pleas to get Shamshiripour help went unanswered.

“He was hungry and homeless. Nobody cared about him,” Boochani told the New York Times. “Why are people dying on this island? Hundreds of people who are there are medically and physically sick.”

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Some refugee advocates have questioned whether Shamshiripour committed suicide, saying his contentious relationship with locals, particularly police, could have made him a target. Photos of his body have been making the rounds.

“Anyone who has seen the photos knows that Hamed’s death is suspicious,” Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told the Guardian. “And anyone who is familiar with Hamed’s circumstances, would know that Hamed had been arrested and beaten by the local police many times. The PNG police could not be relied on to carry out a thorough or impartial investigation. There are no facilities on Manus for an autopsy.”

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Tensions on Manus are high. Over the past few years, the detention center has witnessed horrific incidents, including riots, prolonged hunger strikes and dozens of gruesome suicide attempts, some involving the swallowing of razor blades or scissors. In one incident, police personnel and gangs allegedly infiltrated the facility and attacked detainees, injuring 77 and killing one Iranian by dropping a large rock on his head.

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Australia's refugee policy has achieved its goal, however. Boat arrivals, which reached their peak between 2010 and 2014, have practically ceased.