Manus protest threatening to spiral into bloodshed

Transcript

An ongoing protest by asylum seekers at Australia's Manus Regional Processing Centre is threatening to spiral into a repeat of last year's deadly riot at the centre.

Hundreds of men at the centre have been on hunger strike for a week, demanding a halt to the scheduled transfer of 50 detainees to transitional housing ahead of resettlement in the community.

While the Foreign Ministers of both Papua New Guinea and Australia governments are downplaying the extent protests, Johnny Blades reports that others are warning of a boilover.

Complaints about conditions at the Manus centre are not new but the most pressing issue for asylum seekers relates to plans to resettle them in PNG. They believe their lives are in danger in the community, a conviction forged through their treatment by security and police personnel at the centre. It's a year since the brutal death of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati during a hardline security response to riots at the Manus centre. Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition says that since then the asylum seekers have faced frequent threats of violence from both security personnel and locals expecting their transition to the community.

IAN RINTOUL: This temporary accommodation they're talking about is insecure. So they'll be completely vulnerable and where you've had the police complicit in the violent attacks that took place a year ago, it's very understandable why people fear for their safety outside the detention centre.

Video has emerged of the protests showing detainees digging desperately under the compound fence to reach bottled water they say is being denied them.

"You can see in this video.  Now they are taking water!  They are going to move the water from behind the [inaudible]."
 

To add to the tensions inside the centre, Manus MP Ronnie Knight has warned PNG's parliament that locals are increasingly unhappy about what they see as the lack of benefits from the centre's operations.

RONNIE KNIGHT:  Mr Speaker I advise this honourable house that the disenfranchised people in communities in Manus are preparing to take action which would jeopardise the whole project.

While PNG is officially in charge of the centre and the resettlement plans, it's clear that the buck stops with Canberra. The Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young warns that the government's handling of the situation is inviting more bloodshed.

SARAH HANSON-YOUNG:  It's clear that there is no trust between the asylum-seekers and the government officials.  It is clear that they are terrified of what lies beyond the gates of the centre and it is time for a little more maturity, a little more heart and less tough talk.  Sending in the mobile police squad will only result in chaos and violence.

Ian Rintoul says the troubles at the centre will continue because the asylum seekers see it as a life or death situation, like trench warfare.

IAN RINTOUL:  People would rather die in the trench of the Manus Island detention centre than be pushed into the no-man's land where they will be completely vulnerable outside the detention centre.  There are people who still carry the very real scars, who've got the permanent mental damage, the fractured skulls, who have lost their eyes from the attacks in February.  They've got the scars from the machete attacks and the rocks and the iron bars that were used against   them.

PNG's Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato says the situation at Manus is being managed adequately, and that he hopes the protest will be ended through dialogue.