Tag Archives: Papua New Guinea

UNHCR says Australia abandoned refugees, must clear up the mess it made

Items are seen in the Manus Island detention center on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea,

By Tom Miles

GENEVA (Reuters) – The U.N refugee agency on Friday accused Australia of abandoning hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and said it must take responsibility for the mess it created with its “offshore processing” system.

About 800 refugees are still in a precarious situation on Manus Island, having been forcibly removed from a holding camp last month when Australia decided to close it, UNHCR spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva.

“We are talking here about people who have suffered tremendously, extreme trauma, and are now feeling so insecure in the places where they are staying. There are many victims of torture, people who have been deeply traumatised, having no idea what is going to happen next to them,” she said.

“In light of the continued perilous situation on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island for refugees and asylum seekers abandoned by Australia, UNHCR has called again this week on the Australian government to live up to its responsibility and urgently find humane and appropriate solutions.”

Conditions in the camp, and another on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, have been widely criticised by the United Nations and human rights groups.

The two camps have been cornerstones of Australia’s contentious immigration policy under which it refuses to allow asylum-seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores.

The policy, aimed at deterring people from making a perilous sea voyage to Australia, has bipartisan political support.

The closure of the Manus Island camp, criticised by the United Nations as “shocking”, caused chaos, with the men refusing to leave the compound for fear of being attacked by Manus island residents.

Pouilly said that in the past four weeks, there had been at least five security incidents, including an attempt by three people armed with machetes and an axe to force their way into a site where 150 refugees and asylum seekers have been accommodated since the Australian facility closed.

Pouilly said that although Papua New Guinea now had to deal with the situation, the buck should stop with Australia.

“What we clearly are saying is that it’s Australia’s responsibility in the first place,” she said.

“Australia is the country that created the situation by putting in place this offshore processing facility. So what we are asking is for Australia to find solutions for these people.”

(Reporting by Tom Miles Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

Detained asylum-seekers win right to sue PNG government for compensation

Makeshift sleeping areas are seen inside the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea, November 15, 2017. Picture taken November 15, 2017.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – A Papua New Guinea court has given hundreds of asylum-seekers who were held for years in a controversial Australian detention center the right to sue the PNG government for compensation, Australian media reported on Saturday.

Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court rejected an attempt by the PNG government to stop the asylum-seekers seeking compensation on Friday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The government had tried to argue that the time frame for such attempts to sue for compensation had passed but the court rejected its application.

“The finding opens the way to a major compensation and also for consequential orders against both the PNG and Australian governments,” Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told Australian Associated Press.

The decision comes two months after the PNG government closed the detention center on remote Manus Island, which had housed about 400 male asylum-seekers.

Conditions in the camp, and another on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, have been widely criticized by the United Nations and human rights groups.

The two camps have been cornerstones of Australia’s contentious immigration policy, under which it refuses to allow asylum-seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores.

The policy, aimed at deterring people from making a perilous sea voyage to Australia, has bipartisan political support.

The closure of the Manus island camp, criticized by the United Nations as “shocking”, caused chaos, with the men refusing to leave the compound for fear of being attacked by Manus island residents.

Staff left the closed compound and the men were left without food, water, power or medical support before they were expelled and moved to a transit camp.

Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court declared in 2016 that the detention of asylum-seekers on behalf of the Australian government was illegal and that it breached asylum-seekers’ fundamental human rights.

The asylum-seekers will now go back to court in February to seek orders from Australia and Papua New Guinea for them to be settled in a safe third country.

The United States announced on Friday that it had agreed to accept about 200 more refugees from Manus island and Nauru under a deal struck between Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and former U.S. President Barack Obama.

Another 50 refugees had already been accepted as part of the deal, under which Australia agreed to accept refugees from Central America. U.S President Donald Trump has called the deal “dumb”.

(Reporting by Alana Schetzer; Editing by Paul Tait)

U.N. tells Australia to restore food, water supplies to PNG refugees

Asylum seekers protest on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, in this picture taken from social media November 3, 2017

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations human rights office called on Australia on Friday to restore food, water and health services to about 600 interned refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea, which Canberra cut off three days ago.

The detainees in the Manus Island Centre have defied attempts by the governments of both Australia and PNG to close the camp, saying they fear violent reprisals from the local community if they are moved to other “transit centers”.

“We call on the Australian government … who interned the men in the first place to immediately provide protection, food, water and other basic services,” U.N. rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing.

Australia has an obligation to do so under international human rights law and the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, he said.

There was no immediate comment from Australia or its representatives in Geneva. Its government has said the camp had been ruled illegal by PNG authorities and it had committed to supply other sites for 12 months.

Colville joined the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in warning of an “unfolding humanitarian emergency” in the center where asylum seekers began digging wells on Thursday to try to find water as their food supplies dwindled.

The remote Manus Island center has been a key part of Australia’s disputed immigration policy under which it refuses to allow asylum seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores, detaining them instead in PNG and Naura in the South Pacific.

“We repeat our overall concerns about Australian offshore processing centers which are unsustainable, inhumane and contradictory to its human rights obligations,” Colville said.

Around 500 of the men have still not had their asylum claims processed, he said.

“And obviously the sooner the better, some of them have been there I think for four years,” Colville said. “So that’s a very long time to sit in effectively a detention center disguised as a regional processing center without your case being processed.”

The alternative accommodation being proposed is not finished or adequate to meet their needs, including security, he said.

“We have conveyed to the Australian government and to the local government of Papua New Guinea as well that until the time the accommodation is ready, refugees should not be moved there,” UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch said.

“But also we have urged Australia and PNG to de-escalate the situation, resume basic services – water, electricity, medical services as well,” he said.

The last food distribution was on Sunday, he said.

“Australia’s policy of deterrence by rescuing people at sea, mistreating them and abandoning them has become a notion of cruelty,” Baloch said.

 

 

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Larry King and Andrew Heavens)

 

Earthquake Strikes Off Papua New Guinea

A powerful earthquake struck Papua New Guinea on Tuesday morning generating a small tsunami near the epicenter.

Officials with the Geophysical Observatory in Port Moresby said that the tsunami was 3 feet high and struck in the harbor of Rabaul.  The tsunami caused no flooding and it did not pass the level of the high tide.

The magnitude 7.5 quake struck around 1:45 a.m. local time.

The quake happened along the tectonic plate under Australia and its overriding Pacific plates.  The quake has been preceded by a series of quakes along the fault line that started with a magnitude 7.5 quake on March 29, 2015.

Local officials say there was no widespread damage because of the quake but power lines were brought down in the area of Rabaul.  In Kokopo, buildings were reported with cracks in the walls and other structural damage but there were no reports of injuries.

The quake site is along the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Small Tsunami Generated After Pacific Earthquake

A huge earthquake off the coast of Papua New Guinea generated a small tsunami.

The magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck around 30 miles southeast of Kokopo at a depth of 40 miles. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned of a potential 3 foot high tsunami but the highest reported wave was 1.5 feet in the harbor of Rabaul.

Rabaul residents say there was no major damage and most of the water flooded parking lots near the beach or seaside. Store owners say that items were knocked off shelves but there was no structural damage.

Residents say the tremor lasted about five minutes and was so intense that residents fled into the streets from fear of building collapse.

Miraculously, officials say there were no reports or deaths or injuries from the massive quake.

Papua New Guinea lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”. Volcanic and earthquake activity is common in the region.

Bardarbunga Volcano Erupts In Iceland; Tavurcur In Papua New Guinea

Volcanoes on opposite ends of the world erupted on Thursday.

The Bardarbunga volcano in Iceland, which has been the subject of close monitoring by seismologists since a series of earthquakes began weeks ago, finally broke through the ice covering with what the Iceland Met Office called a “fissure eruption.”

The volcano had erupted under the ice earlier this week leading to an aviation warning but it was canceled when the volcano’s activity appeared to cease.  The latest eruption reportedly has lava spewing to the surface but “has not shown signs of volcanic ash.”

Despite the lack of ash, the aviation warning level has been raised to red and flights are being diverted around the volcano’s area.

Aviation experts have also placed a warning over the Tavurcur volcano in Papua New Guinea following an eruption Thursday.

The Volcanic Ash Advisory Center has been monitoring the ash cloud and providing updates to airlines.  The cloud of ash has been drifting southwest since the eruption.

“The volcanic eruption reached the top of the atmosphere at 50,000 feet which is the same height as which planes travel,” said meteorologist Ian Shepherd  “It’s too early to say at this point if the ash cloud will reach Australia but it was a significant eruption.”

Earthquakes Shake Both Sides of the Ring of Fire

Two large earthquakes rocked countries on opposite sides of the “Ring of Fire”.

A 7.1 earthquake shook Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific.  The earthquake did not cause any major structural damage or injuries because of it’s location however it was felt for hundreds of miles.  Due to the depth of the earthquake there was no tsunami warning issued for this quake.
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