Asylum-seeker deals for Malaysia and Papua New Guinea to be decided this week

This week the leaders of Australia and Papua New Guinea will meet to continue their discussions to reopen the Manus Island Detention centre.

In August, Australia made an agreement with PNG to reopen the detention centre on Manus Island for asylum-seekers who try to come to Australia by boat without valid visas.  The plan has been delayed after the Australian High Court decision that the Gillard Government's plan to process asylum-seekers in Malaysia was unlawful. The Government hopes to resume its offshore processing plans after the Australian parliament votes this Thursday on changes to the Migration laws so that asylum-seekers can be sent to Malaysia.

PNG's representative in Australia said that his government "is ready and willing to cooperate with Australia on any solutions through Manus processing centre".

Amnesty International and other refugee groups have criticized the plan to send asylum-seekers to Manus Island, saying that sending them to PNG is no different to sending them to Nauru. 

Another leading Australian organisation condemned conditions on Manus Island.  The Executive Director of the Australian Council for International Development stated that there was “overwhelming evidence” that people detained in Nauru and on Manus Island “suffered mental damage with self harm and suicide attempts a common occurrence, and an absence of trained counsellors and staff being able to cope.”  He also said that many of these asylum-seekers were still being treated for trauma and mental health issues following their detention.

An Australian lawyer who worked on Manus Island in 2008 said that conditions in the detention centre on Manus Island had been very hot, humid and cramped.  He said that “it would be pretty tough going” for asylum-seekers in the centre.

“During my travels around there I was told that people had tried to commit suicide by throwing themselves on power boxes, trying to electrocute themselves obviously in a state of hysteria or despair I should say.  […]  So obviously those people had quite enough and weren't prepared to continue on there. They're the sort of stories that I heard, again only hearsay from locals who observed these things they say”, he continued.

Meanwhile, the UN agency for refugees told parliament today that sending asylum-seekers to Malaysia is better for them than being detained in Australia. UNHCR Regional Representative Richard Towle has said that the conditions in the agreement between Australia and Malaysia mean that an asylum-seeker would be treated better there than they would in Australian detention. Australia’s policy of mandatory detention does not allow asylum-seekers to work or live in the community, which Malaysia would allow.

UNHCR’s support for the agreement with Malaysia is crucial ahead of Thursday’s parliamentary vote to make the Malaysia deal legal. No Australian Prime Minister has lost a vote on changes to the law in parliament for 80 years.