<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/06/we-just-sit-here-the-broken-men-australias-offshore-detention-regime-left-behind-in-papua-new-guinea>
"“Manus is closed. Detention is over, but we are detained still. We are here
still, people are suffering a lot still. Every day we get worse, we are dying a
little bit more. But nobody cares about us.”
Here on a dusty hill on the edge of Port Moresby is the ragged, desperate end
to Australia’s illegal offshore detention regime in Papua New Guinea.
Samad Abdul was 23 when he arrived in Australia by boat seeking asylum.
He was on one of the first planes to Manus Island after Kevin Rudd’s 2013
declaration that boat-borne asylum seekers would never settle in Australia. He
has been held in PNG ever since, first in the Manus Island detention centre,
then in Lorengau and now in Port Moresby – free to come and go from the hostel
where he lives, but not to leave the country.
The persecution he faced in his home in Quetta, Pakistan, has been formally
recognised. He has a “well-founded fear of being persecuted” in his homeland.
He cannot be returned there and Australia has a legal obligation to protect
him.
Abdul is now 35.
“How long should we wait? We need to know a solution,” he says."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
