Thirty-five asylumseekers broke out of an Australian immigration detention on Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) Manus Island and several were injured, officials said yesterday, as tensions mount about their fate under hardline policies.
Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said the group escaped on Sunday evening, but were quickly rounded up by private security contractors at the facility, one of two remote Pacific camps used in Canberra’s off-shore detention policy.
Under the scheme, aimed at deterring people-smugglers, any asylumseeker arriving by boat or intercepted at sea is transferred to Manus or Nauru for processing and permanent resettlement outside Australia.
Morrison said power poles and fences were toppled during the fracas, and bunk beds smashed to fashion makeshift weapons, but no buildings were destroyed.
“A full face-to-photo identification has been conducted and all transferees have been accounted for,” Morrison told reporters.
Eight detainees were arrested over the disturbance, and Morrison said 19 went to the medical centre for treatment, “none of whom were exhibiting life-threatening conditions.”
“As at this morning, five of those transferees remained at the clinic. A number of G4S [security contractor] staff also sustained minor injuries,” he said.
He said he did not yet have a full report about the medical conditions of those who were treated, and refused to “speculate” when asked whether the injuries were serious.
The breakout followed a tense meeting at the center between detainees and officials from Papua New Guinea’s immigration and citizenship authority to discuss their fate if they were found to have a genuine refugee claim.
Morrison said detainees “became agitated and commenced chanting” after they were informed they would be resettled in PNG and “a third country option will not be offered.”
They were also told “that neither the PNG or the Australian governments will be acting on behalf of the transferees in seeking alternative settlement countries to PNG,” Morrison said.
Though security staff used “personal protection gear,” Morrison said “no batons or other weapons were in situ.”
He described resettlement as a “challenge” — the details of which were yet to be hammered out with Papua New Guinea’s government — and suggested that the Manus facility could become a permanent home for some of the 1,340 currently housed there.
“It’s not restricted to being a temporary accommodation,” he said. “If people are resettled [in PNG] then that’s a possibility, but those sorts of details haven’t been confirmed.”
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has condemned Australia’s camps on Manus and Nauru as “harsh” facilities that “impact very profoundly on the men, women and children housed there.”
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said people in the camps were being treated humanely, but “if you come to Australia illegally by boat, this is, I’m afraid, what happens to you.”
“It’s impossible not to feel sorry for people who want a better life and who are living in a horrible country and I guess it’s good that they think Australia is a beacon,” he said. “We are a beacon — a beacon of freedom and decency and generosity — but we cannot allow people to take advantage of our generosity in this way. If they’re going to come to Australia, they should come through the proper channels and not through the back door.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of