Iranian man is in Lorengau hospital with serious injuries to his head and eyes

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

An Iranian refugee on Manus Island was violently assaulted on Saturday, friends have said.

Manus Island police confirmed reports that a man had been admitted to Lorengau general hospital after an alleged attack, where he was in a stable condition and “able to talk”. He was expected to undergo x-rays.

Photographs posted to Twitter show the man with severe facial and head injuries. Behrouz Boochani, a refugee and journalist on the island, said the man was unconscious for several hours, and there were concerns he was not receiving appropriate medical care.

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“We still don’t know who beat him and exactly where he was at the time,” Boochani said. “He is still in a critical condition and has suffered serious injuries to his head and eyes.”

Manus provincial police commander David Yapu said the victim was a 42-year-old man who was married to a local woman and living in the community.

The suspect, who is a local and whose identity is known to police, used a piece of wood and swung it at the victim and hit him above his right eye, causing injuries, Yapu said.

“Police are continuing with their investigation and the suspect will be picked up and dealt by police for assaulting the refugee and causing injuries to him.”

Yapu appealed to people in the Lorengau community to respect refugees who were married to local women and living with them in the community.

Manus Island – like much of Papua New Guinea – is affected by inadequate funding of the health system and medication shortages.

It has been an ongoing issue for the asylum seeker and refugee population, who, as well as suffering high rates of mental illness, have also seen dangerous, and at times fatal, delays in accessing healthcare for critical issues.

Several hundred refugee and asylum seeker men remain on Manus Island, living in several purpose-built accommodation units since the detention centre was shut down late last year.

The centre was closed by force after several hundred refugees refused to leave the centre despite water, power and other services being turned off. They cited fears for their safety in the Lorengau community, where a number of them had previously been attacked, and barricaded themselves inside the centre for almost a month.

The closure was declared after Papua New Guinea’s supreme court ruled in April 2016 that the centre was unlawful and against the country’s constitution. The detention of hundreds of men is now the subject of a number of legal cases, included a compensation case currently stalled in the supreme court.

Earlier this month more than 360 refugee and asylum seeker men signed a petition calling on the PNG chief justice to deliver his verdict on an appeal, ending the wait one way or another.