JUN 28 2020
By Lauren Husband, Communications Team
Two clients whom I love dearly and worked very closely with last summer are victims of an unimaginable detainee crisis in Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Ali fled Iran and Fahad fled Iraq, both by boat, in 2013. Although they did not yet know each other, they both fled their homes and families to seek refuge in Australia. Fahad was barely 18 at the time— he hadn’t even graduated high school yet. This is the story of how a future of hope and freedom turned into one of hopelessness and imprisonment.
(Spoiler alert: they were eventually resettled in Fayetteville by Canopy, have become two of my most favorite friends, and have bright futures ahead!)
Why Are People Fleeing Iraq and Iran?
The 1979 Islamic Revolution put fighting corruption on top of its priority list. Yet, today, some 40 years later, corruption is so rampant that it is causing disastrous inequality and much public anger. According to Transparency International, in 2017, Iran was the fourth most corrupt country in the world in the eyes of its people. Years of severe international sanctions brought the Iranian economy to the verge of collapse, and Iran ranks as the 18th worst country in the world for freedom of expression. Although there are many things Ali loves about his home, such as his family, the food, pigeon-keeping, and his family’s farm, he felt unable to completely be himself in his home. He feared the oppressive government and rampant corruption, so he fled to Australia hopes of finding a safer, freer future.
Fahad also felt the pressures of a corrupt, oppressive government in Iraq. Knowing the dangers he would face if he stayed home as militant Islamic tensions escalated in the region, he decided his best option would be to brave the three-day boat journey from Iraq to Australia. What we now know as the Iraqi refugee crisis is the result of decades of conflict and violence. In 2014, an escalation of violence surged when ISIS launched attacks in northern Iraq. As a result of the conflict, millions of families were forced to flee their homes and half of the country’s infrastructure was destroyed. More than 260,000 people have been forced to flee Iraq, while 3 million more have been displaced within the country. There are also 280,000 refugees in Iraq from neighboring countries — the vast majority escaping violence and persecution in Syria. Although his is glad to be safe and free in his new home, Fahad misses his family and culture daily.
What is Manus Island?
By law, as of September 2013, Australia will not resettle any migrants who approach the country by boat. This policy was originally intended to discourage dangerous ocean crossings and human smuggling, but instead caused the indefinite confinement of almost 600 asylees. Since 2013, Australia has paid Papua New Guinea, its closest neighbor, to house hundreds of migrants caught at sea while trying to reach the continent.
These migrants, all men, and mostly from the Middle East and Southeast Asia, became detained on the island. Most of them sought status as refugees or asylum seekers, but Australian and Papua New Guinean governments refused to approve their claims. Unable to return home due to fear of violence or persecution, these men were stuck in limbo, many for almost 6 years.
The conditions of Manus Regional Processing Centre were abysmal.
GetUp’s human rights co-director Shen Narayanasamy, who spent time inside the now-closed detention centre, said death or serious illness was inevitable in coming days.
“The conditions are appalling and it’s obvious you wouldn’t choose to stay here if you thought you could be safer elsewhere.
The Closure of Manus Island processing centre
A 2018 report by the Refugee Council of Australia and Amnesty International outlined the conditions that led to the closure of Manus Regional Processing Centre and why many of the men, including Fahad and Ali, were left in purgatory as they faced dangerous conditions in their home countries but could not safely integrate in Papua New Guinea, either. Here is an excerpt from the report—
“The original offshore processing arrangement, in which the men were detained in a ‘Regional Processing Centre’ (RPC) on Manus Island, was found to be unconstitutional by the PNG Supreme Court on 26 April 2016. The court ordered that their detention end, and the next day the centre was declared ‘open’, with the men able to leave the centre and go to Lorengau town during the day. On the ground, however, nothing really changed. The men were not able to live anywhere else or leave Manus Island without permission. As the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated in 2016, the number of security guards, presence of fences, and continued use of communal tents made the arrangement indistinguishable from the previous one.
In April 2017, the Australian Government announced that the centre would close by the end of October. Most of the men wanted to stay at the centre, and held peaceful protests asking for their safety and freedom. Their requests were met with a relentless and brutal campaign to force them to leave. Facilities and services were gradually removed in the months leading up to the closure, and medications, food and water were restricted so they would be forced to leave. On 31 October 2017, most of the Australian service providers left. The next day, water and power supplies were cut off. Around 600 men stayed. Over the next weeks, tensions escalated. Those left in the centre were forced to store water in garbage bins. Locals were prevented by PNG security forces from delivering food to the men. One man who collapsed with chest pain reportedly waited four and a half hours before he was taken to a local hospital, where the only ECG machine was broken. PNG officials entered the compound, destroying sun-shelters, smashing the taps on water tanks, and filling in water wells.
They feared for their safety in the local community, as the new centres were much closer to Lorengau, the main town on Manus Island. The local Manusian people had not been consulted before the RPC had been constructed. They were never offered an opportunity to understand or engage constructively with refugees and people seeking asylum. As a result, both refugees and local residents believed in stereotypes about each other.”
A new life in America
Ali and Fahad, who stayed in the same housing unit at the Manus Processing Center, are now roommates in Fayetteville.
They are employed at Walmart and hope to one day start families and establish homes in Arkansas.
Fahad and Ali, after refusing to risk their lives by returning home or settling in Manus island, were finally given another option by the Australian government: resettlement in a third country. They were resettled in Fayetteville, Arkansas in the summer of 2019. They were excited to finally have a place to feel safe and call home.
They are still acclimating to their new ways of life, but one of my greatest joys is watching these friends work hard, achieve goals, and spread roots in their new home. I ran into Fahad at a coffee shop a few weeks ago (before quarantine, of course) and, being the social butterfly he is, he was with a new friend. Fahad and Ali embody courage, resilience, and a commitment to their dreams that so many refugees have, and those of us who have the privilege to know them are truly the better for it.
For more information on the Iraqi and Iranian refugee crisis, as well as information on Manus island:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/iranian-minors-seeking-asylum-europe-190109135539105.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/world/australia/manus-island-refugees.html
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