Papua: We Will Use Force If Necessary to Evacuate Manus Camp

Papua New Guinea officials announced that with the beginning of the dismantling of the Manus camp, they will resort to force if necessary to evacuate the camp of 600 illegal migrants. Reuters reported on Thursday (November 9) that the evacuation operation of this detention center for refugees has begun today. According to the report, Papua New Guinea officials sent a notice to the camp warning the 600 individuals present that they have only two days for voluntary evacuation of the Manus camp. The notice stated that the refusal of these illegal migrants to leave the Manus camp will lead to the use of force by the relevant authorities to remove them. These refugees have been trapped in the mentioned camp for the past nine days and refuse to leave. Meanwhile, the United Nations has also warned about the situation of these refugees due to lack of access to electricity, water, and food. Although the Manus camp has been closed since October 31 and its water and electricity have been cut off, the refugees stationed there say they are afraid of potential violent confrontations with the island's locals and are unwilling to leave the detention center. The Papua New Guinea Immigration and Citizenship Service, in a two-page document sent to the camp and published by Reuters, wrote to the migrants that they may become seriously ill due to the lack of water and food, accumulation of garbage, and presence of sewage. For this reason, the refugees were asked to leave the camp as soon as possible and warned that if they resist leaving voluntarily, they will face force. According to the report, the male refugees inside this asylum camp have Iranian, Afghan, Pakistani, Syrian, Burmese, and Sri Lankan nationalities. They told Reuters that they continue to resist the evacuation of the camp and that if their food supplies run out, they will drink rainwater. The report also states that nearly 100 of them have fallen ill. Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish Iranian refugee and journalist present in this camp, confirmed the start of the dismantling operation on his Twitter page on Thursday. He wrote that the refugees look at the workers who have entered the camp to dismantle it with fear and are unwilling to leave the camp for another detention center. The refugees say the solution to this problem is not the use of force but sending them to a third country. The Australian government has designated the islands of Manus and Nauru for the detention of refugees who attempted to reach this country by boat. On Tuesday of this week, a court in Papua New Guinea rejected the requests of the refugees stationed in the Manus Island camp to restore electricity and water and send food to this camp. Salama Injia, a judge of the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea, stated in his ruling that the reasons provided by the refugees for not leaving the camp are not convincing. He noted that although the cutting of some services in this camp may have violated some provisions of the constitution, the cause of this is the refugees themselves who refuse to leave the detention center. Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees had previously described the current situation in the Manus camp as 'increasingly tense and uncertain' and reported that accommodations for this number of refugees outside the detention center are insufficient. Australia’s strict policies towards refugees attempting to reach this land by boat have faced severe criticism from the UN and human rights groups.