The head of Australia's Refugee Action Coalition says the Australian government is continuing to deport asylum seekers to Iraq, despite the country spiralling towards civil war.
Detainees alleged Iranian man Reza Berati was thrown from a balcony and beaten. Photo: AAP
Ian Rintoul says this has led to the first major protest at the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea since the death of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati in February.
Mr Rintoul says the asylum seekers have appealed for a moratorium on deporting asylum seekers to Iraq, but the Immigration minister Scott Morrison has rejected this.
"I mean Iraq is almost at the level of civil war and dislocation as that that exists in Syria and yet the government is refusing to process people. There are many hundreds of Iraqi asylum seekers who haven't been processed, the government is refusing to start the process for those Iraqi asylum seekers."
Ian Rintoul of Australia's Refugee Action Coalition.
