Many believe Australia’s offshore disaster in Manus Island and Nauru is over and all imprisoned refugees are now in safe countries. Nothing is further from the truth. According to official statistics there are 130 people still being held in Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby and 110 people still being held in Nauru.
These are the last of the refugees banished eight years ago from Christmas Island to PNG under the 19 July 2013 policy, signed off by the prime ministers of both PNG and Australia. The former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd and his Labour government imposed this inhumane policy to ‘stop the boats’, to deter those who flee from their home countries to avoid persecution. Rudd’s original policy included an ambiguous intention to resettle ‘genuine’ refugees, but he lost power shortly thereafter and subsequent leaders – including Tony Abbot, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison – have all chosen to take cruelty towards innocent refugees to a whole new level.
I was one of those people who, along with women, men, unaccompanied minors, and families, was sent to PNG and Nauru. I ended up on Manus Island in PNG, where my imprisonment and torture were used to send a message to the others desperately waiting in Indonesia to take the long journey across the sea to seek Australia’s help.
