You may have seen a lot on the media recently with regards to the protesters at Kangaroo Point hotel. I want to reassure you all that these young protesters are incredibly responsible and doing all they can to include as many of the refugees as possible in their decision making. I have been to their meetings, they are very efficient in the way they communicate, organise and action their work. They know their rights and are focussed on peaceful protest. However, "when the people leading the nation break the law civil disobedience" is an element of their philosophy but it is always peaceful. They are adjusting and reorganising on a daily basis to meet the needs of the men inside. They are always reminding each other that this is about the men getting freedom and not about them and or any other agenda. I am totally impressed with what they have achieved and even though we know the government are adamant about the policy, public opinion is changing and that is growing.
The men are all really struggling now. There are guys who are not leaving their rooms and they are communicating less and less. One of the men who was messaging me everyday with a lovely god bless you etc message. He told me approx. 5 days ago he just couldn't speak and doesn't know what to do with himself. He really is in state of despair.
We must also remember that there are men in BITA, MITA, Villawood, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin and of course the Tamil family on Christmas Island. It's shocking to see so many locked up in such an arbitrary manner. Detention is bad enough but it was supposed to be administrative....high security and punitive punishment should have never been a part of this.😥
Mantra
It is really difficult for the guys in the Mantra to they are stuck in their rooms and can't even go outside. I have spoken with a couple of guys there and I am really concerned about one of them. He was totally gutted when he got rejected by the US in December, he told me that he cried for the first time in 6 years, he also told me in all his 6 years on Manus this is the worst he has ever experienced. We have to remember that they are checked on a couple of times a day by the guards and that is usually early in the morning and late at night. The guards just walk in and shine a torch in their face. They are served food in plastic containers and have to eat with plastic cutlery. Shujaat only has contact with 2 people in Australia and the other contact is with his family. He is thin, gaunt and looks like he is in a concentration camp. I knew him as a fun, bubbly and forward thinking person, always focused on the future.😧
Please write to your local member again and tell them about this disgusting situation. 🙏
Port Moresby
Attack:
A Sudanese man was attacked and beaten by 5 local security men. He was asking one of the guards at the gate of the Shady Rest hotel (funded by Australia) if one of the shops was open. The guard was just angry and rude (apparently they later found that he is rude to all the refugees). He told the refugee to go away and that he wasn't wanted there and to go back home, the refugee told him to have more respect for himself and not be so rude. The guard called over 4 of his friends and they beat him really badly. He was taken to hospital and the owner of the hotel reported it to the police. The owner is actually quite a nice guy, he is not a local, but from Europe, and has run the hotel for a while. He has made a very nice income keeping refugees there for years now 🙄. He also was one of the partners that built the PIH hospital that Australia contracted to treat sick refugees and make a shit load of money. It turned out to be a shop front because they didn't have the facilities to do half of the operations and treatments that were required. I met him when I was at the Shady Rest just before we got deported.
S (from Iran)
You may remember me telling you about S, we have been supporting him with phone credit for just over a year now. He was working and doing the best he could but recently he has gone downhill rapidly. He was supposed to be medivaced here but the day before the flight he couldn't go through with it. He has severe anxiety and stomach problems and the thought of going behind locked high fences again was too much. So he stayed in Port Moresby hoping that the UNHCR would help him or the Canada process but of course it's an incredibly long and slow process and nothing has happened to date. He has lost all hope, is very thin and incredibly ill. He said he doesn't have an inclination to do anything and even talking to friends is hard. He is still in contact with his family though.
