Asylum seekers and refugees are barricading themselves inside the Manus Island detention centre ahead of its closure today, fearing reprisals from the local Papua New Guinean community and a lack of adequate provisions in three alternative accomodation facilities.
Hundreds of detainees are working to patch up damaged fences at the Lombrum Navy Base centre, after security officers walked away from the facility.
#Manus #IAmWatching Staff left at midnight. There’s no security on the gates. pic.twitter.com/CfTDrJlp6n
— RAC Victoria (@racvictoria) October 30, 2017
The centre’s electricity, water, and food supplies are also expected to be cut off today. Those remaining at the camp are subsisting on an estimated two days’ worth stashed supplies, and drinking water supplies are reportedly already exhausted.
The men on #Manus are telling the @ASRC1 they’ve run out of water and can’t drink the water they collected in rubbish bins as contaminated.
— Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) October 30, 2017
A note left at the camp says that come tomorrow, “arrangements will be underway for the return of this site to the [Papua New Guinea Defence Force].”
Photos from the camp show a front gate was also left open.
Australian Gov provided security left #Manus detention centre at 5am. Men found this terrifying note on the front gate left open. pic.twitter.com/I8SZDVhfAb
— Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) October 30, 2017
Three alternative accomodation options have been offered to residents of the camp, however The Sydney Morning Herald notes one of them simply isn’t ready to be lived in, and another consists of “transferable accomodation containers.” Two of the three facilities are not fenced, nor guarded.
Asylum seekers on the island have long expressed fears that the local communities will retaliate to their presence with violence, and extra police have reportedly been deployed to the island over those fears.
Refugees adamant they won’t leave detention. They are afraid but refuse to leave detention
— Behrouz Boochani (@BehrouzBoochani) October 30, 2017
Refugee Action Coalition spokesperson Ian Rintoul told SMH that asylum seekers who leave the centre for the alternative accomodation “will also be deprived of medical and other support with no hope of a secure future.”
Lawyer Ben Lomai has vowed to seek a last-ditch legal order guaranteeing power, water, and food to residents at the centre.
The PNG government maintains that it is Australia’s duty to resettle the residents not granted status as refugees, and the refugees who chose not to resettle in the nation. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says Australia is still working on third-country resettlement opportunities, as our government still refuses to bring them here.
The centre will close at 5pm local time.
What a fucking nightmare.
