RIOTS AND DEATH AT AUSTRALIA’S MANUS ISLAND CONCENTRATION CAMP

The riots, injuries and death that have occurred on Manus Island, a detention centre in the Pacific where detainees are kept in inhuman concentration camp-like conditions, is the result of Australia’s neo-fascist racist policies designed to keep non-white foreigners from coming to Australia.

Scott Morrison, the Australian government’s Minister for Immigration, has defended the indefensible despite at least one detainee having been shot to death and some 77 others being injured, several of them seriously with at least one other with gunshot wounds and another with a fractured skull. Morrison says: “What those seeking to send boats to Australia need to understand – and those who may seek to get on one of those boats – is this government’s resolve is absolute”.

The Manus Island concentration camp is designed deliberately to detain inmates in the harshest conditions the government feels it can get away with in order to deter other asylum seeking refugees from coming to Australia by boat.

As a result, inmates have rebelled against the inhuman conditions and have attempted to escape from the camp despite having nowhere to actually escape to; such is their desperation and their plight.

As well as the physical conditions that the inmates are being kept in, many are also suffering psychological stress. Most inmates have no idea when they are going to be released from their torment and even less idea about where they will end up. It is undoubtedly this that has led to the riots and resultant injuries and death of the inmates.

None of them have ever been arrested or charged with any offence and are guilty of no crime, yet they are locked up in disgusting conditions with no foreseeable end to their incarceration in places they never wanted to be.

Scott Morrison, who is ultimately responsible for the safety of the prisoners, must be called upon to resign for having allowed conditions to deteriorate to the extent where these events have occurred. Representations should also be made to the United Nations to ensure that Australia lives up to the requirements it has signed up for in various refugee agreements and conventions.

The Australian government needs to back off with its racist policies and bring all the inmates detained offshore to Australia where they can be processed and settled in Australia after having been found to be genuine refugees.