Hatam Yekta, a 36-year-old Kurdish refugee from Iran, is on the brink of death in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Dr Hawzhin Azeez, a Kurdish human rights defender, told Green Left.
Yekta is being held offshore under an inhumane policy which the European parliament has recently adopted.
Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) said the Australian government is refusing to medevac the severely ill man. RAC released shocking “before” and “after” photos, contrasting his previous fitness with his current emaciated condition. Rintoul said he may have only months to live.
“If anyone wants to see what awaits refugees seeking asylum following the European Parliament’s 17 June decision to ‘send them back’, all you have to do is look at what Australia has done to this Kurdish man and thousands of other refugees and asylum seekers,” Azeez said.
“Hatam has been held in offshore detention for almost thirteen years, a reality that has left him critically ill and on the brink of death. No one can look at the difference between these two photographs and still consider offshore detention humane.
“In fact, it is precisely its inhumanity that is weaponised as a tool of control; a tool of violence and terror designed to deter future refugees. But, in the words of the renowned Somali-British poet Warsan Shire: ‘No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark’.
“Other well-known Kurdish refugees who have sought refuge in Australia, including Behrouz Boochani, Mostafa Azimitabar and Farhad Bandesh, have been subjected to detention that led to severe human rights violations.
“These practices have been repeatedly condemned by human rights organisations as cruel, inhumane and, contrary to international law, Australia has refused to change course.”
Azeez said Australia “conveniently shifts responsibility” on to PNG “while ignoring the reality that PNG is itself a developing nation facing poverty, limited healthcare infrastructure, unemployment, and shortages in public services.
“Poor and struggling nations are made the keepers of refugees and when inevitable abuses occur, they are blamed for them as well.”
The right to seek refuge is an undeniable, unalienable human right, Azeez added.
“Yet to seek refuge and be erased from existence, to spend years, even decades, behind bars, robbed of hope, dignity and integrity is what Australia, and soon Europe, considers a just response to forced migration driven by their wars, their exploitation, their drones, destruction and interventions carried out across the developing world.”
Azeez said offshore detention centres are “dangerous, unregulated spaces where human rights abuses are rife”. She described them as “instruments of deterrence built on suffering and ceaseless punishment”, adding that “their victims are among the world's most vulnerable people”.
Rintoul said Labor must urgently medevac Yekta to Australia. “It is unconscionable that the government would deny him the medical and mental health care he needs.
“Labor has a particular responsibility, as it sent Hatam and other refugees to Manus Island in 2013 and the government introduced the Medevac law.”
The Department of Home Affairs told Radio New Zealand Pacific on June 19 that Yekta was not Australia’s responsibility. “The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government is responsible for the management of individuals remaining in PNG, who were formerly under regional processing arrangements," it said.
“The Australian Government does not have any role in the ongoing management for individuals remaining in PNG.”
Azeez told GL that the Kurdish community will be organising a campaign around this urgent issue.