Manus Regional Processing Center

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Manus Regional Processing Center (2012)

The Manus Regional Processing Center (MRPC) was one of two camps in Australia outside the territory of Australia to which the asylum-seeking boat people were brought. The camp was located on the island of Manus, part of Papua New Guinea . Another such Australian internment camp, the Nauru Regional Processing Center , is located on the small island nation of Nauru . The MRPC was dissolved as planned in 2017. In November 2017, the inmates were transported by police from Papua New Guinea to the three new accommodation centers East Lorengau , West Lorengau and Hillside Haus , the construction of which was financed by the Australian government.

camp

The MRPC was operated on the premises of the Royal Australian Navy's Lombrum military base , called HMAS Tarangau . Human rights organizations said that because of the structural and environmental conditions one could only live there for a few months, but not for years. Most of the men were interned there for more than three years. There have been cases of malaria and typhoid fever . The communication of the inmates to the outside was regulated or restricted by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection . The MRPC was operated by private security companies.

history

The MS Tampa (2009)
The HMAS Manoora (2006)

The internment camp was founded after the so-called Tampa affair , when Arne Rinnan , the captain of the Norwegian cargo ship MS Tampa , took more than 430 refugees from Afghanistan , Sri Lanka , India , Pakistan and Iran from a no longer seaworthy cargo ship saved. He steered the MS Tampa to Christmas Island , an Australian outlying territory , to temporarily put the refugees ashore. Australian marines from HMAS Manoora boarded the cargo ship off Christmas Island, preventing the refugee boat from docking in Flying Fish Cove , the island's main town. The Australian federal government prevented the refugees from entering Australian soil, which would have granted a direct right to an asylum check . The behavior of the Australian government led to a diplomatic confrontation with Norway.

The MRPC opened on October 21, 2001. It is known as the Offshore Processing Center , an asylum seeker camp that is outside the territory of Australia. The establishment of such camps was part of the policy of the so-called Pacific Solution , which the Australian government under John Howard developed and which all Australian governments have pursued since then (as of 2017). The rush of boat people who tried to land on Christmas Island , Ashmore and Cartier Islands and Cocos Islands or other Australian islands in the Pacific Ocean to obtain asylum in Australia should be prevented with this policy.

After Kevin Rudd of the Labor Party won the general election in November 2007 , the center was closed in 2008. In 2012, more and more boat people tried to gain asylum in Australia, after which the Australian labor government under Julia Gillard reopened both camps.

According to reports in 2013, there were reports of sexual assault, rape and sexual abuse of children in the Manus camp. There was riot in the camp from February 16-18, 2014, with 70 people injured and a refugee named Barati killed on February 17. In a study of the Senate was arrested in December 2014 that these riots foreseeable eminently (German: very predictable ) were. In addition, the Australian government neglected the protection of asylum seekers. In 2016, two camp workers were sentenced to long prison terms for the murder of Barati in New Guinea.

resolution

On April 26, 2016, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea ruled the center illegal. The Australian government then announced that it would not take over the more than 900 people from the camp. In November 2016, the press announced that there was an appointment to disband the Manus and Nauru camps and relocate the inmates to the United States . In a telephone conversation between Donald Trump and the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull , Trump described the appointment as a dumb deal (German: stupid agreement ). Reuters reported on March 2, 2017 that a few dozen asylum seekers on Manus had accepted financial offers from the Australian government to return to their home countries.

According to a press release on March 13, 2017, the Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea declared that the current 861 camp inmates can now move freely outside the camp. However, he also pointed out that the camp is now located on a naval force site. The warehouse will finally be closed on October 31, 2017. Papua New Guinea ministers at a meeting held on March 8, 2017, asked the Australian delegation for assistance in treating refugees who do not wish to move to the United States.

After jailed boat people filed a class action lawsuit against the Australian government in December 2014 , the government proposed a settlement in June 2017 to avert a threatened conviction in court. The approximately 1900 asylum seekers who have been in this camp since 2012 are said to receive a total of A $ 70 million (about 47 million euros) as compensation for their unlawful detention. The Australian state also wants to bear the court costs of around 13.5 million euros.

On September 6, 2017, the High Court of Australia , the highest court in Australia, approved this settlement proposal.

At the end of October, the warehouse was closed as planned, the staff withdrawn and the supply of electricity, water and food ceased on November 2, 2017. At the beginning of November 2017 there were around 600 men on the camp grounds, most of them from Iran , Afghanistan , Sri Lanka , Pakistan and Bangladesh . They had not accepted alternative offers from the Australian state, such as resettlement to Lorengau , the capital of Manus Province , or resettlement to Cambodia .

On November 23, 2017, The Guardian Australia reported that the refugee camp had been stormed by paramilitary forces from the Papua New Guinea Police. Around 40 of the refugees were taken away in buses and the advocate for the camp inmates, the journalist Behrouz Boochani, was taken away. The Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani , who has been in immigration detention in the Manus camp for six years (2019) , was awarded a prize by Amnesty International Australia on November 1, 2017 for his coverage of this camp.

Successor camp

The approximately 380 camp inmates were transported to the new East Lorengau Transit Center , West Lorengau Haus and Hillside Haus camps on November 23 and 24, 2017 . All three camp complexes, the construction of which the Australian government financed, are located around 30 kilometers from the provincial capital Lorengau. Lorengau has almost 6000 inhabitants.

After the relocation of the camp inmates, the organization Doctors Without Borders joined the criticism of the inhumane treatment of the boat people by UNHCR , Amnesty International , Oxfam , the Australian Council for International Development and other human rights organizations. She spoke of a "humanitarian crisis" that should be ended. In several major Australian cities, several thousand people took part in demonstrations against the Australian government's asylum policy and demanded evacuation to Australia.

The concept of the successor camp:

  • In Hillside House , the people are to be accommodated who have received refugee status. They should be moved to voluntarily return, rejected or deported. You get food three times a day. Visits are prohibited, as is staying outside the camp.
  • The West Lorengau House is intended to accommodate people who are either admitted to the USA or who plan to be admitted to other countries or who want to return to their home countries or who want to settle in Papua New Guinea. They receive food once a week and can move freely outside of this camp.
  • The East Lorengau Transit Center , which also houses the infirmary for all refugees, was originally planned to accommodate 230 refugees.

The refugees emphasize their concern that no adequate precautions have been taken against theft and violence from outside the camps.

See also

literature

  • Behrouz Boochani , Omid Tofighian: No Friend But The Mountains: News from No Man's Land . btb Verlag, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-442-75858-6 (English: No Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison . Australia 2018. Translated by Manfred Allié, Gabriele Kempf-Allié).

Web links

Commons : Manus Island Detention Center  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Manus Regional Processing Center ( Memento of the original dated February 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on Departments of Immigration and Border Protection. Retrieved March 2, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.border.gov.au
  2. ↑ a b theguardian.com February 15, 2017 / Ben Doherty: Manus Island detention center to close by year's end, inquest told
  3. ↑ Ben Doherty: Manus detention center cleared of all refugees and asylum seekers , November 24, 2017, on The Guardian Australia. Retrieved November 24, 2017
  4. ↑ a b Christoph Sydow: Dealing with boat refugees. The deceptive role model Australia , from April 20, 2015, on spiegel.de
  5. ↑ a b Simon Cullen: First asylum seekers arrive on Manus Island , November 21, 2012, on ABC News. Retrieved March 2, 2017
  6. ^ Communictions Service. Serco Immigration Services , on Department of Immigration and Border Protection. Retrieved March 2, 2017
  7. ↑ theguardiam.com February 24, 2014 / Paul Farrell: Manus Island and Nauru centers to be run by Transfield in $ 1.2bn deal
  8. ↑ Tampa captain defends action ( Memento August 17, 2011 on the Internet Archive ), September 6, 2001, on ABC, accessed March 3, 2017
  9. ↑ Paul Farrell, Oliver Laughland: Sex assaults at Manus Island center appear likely to go unpunished , November 1, 2013, on theguardian.com
  10. ↑ Reza Barati, a 23-year-old Iranian asylum seeker.
  11. ↑ Bruce Hill: Two men jailed for murdering asylum seeker Reza Barati in Manus Island , April 19, 2016, on ABC. Retrieved March 2, 2017
  12. ↑ Brett Cole: Australia Will Close Detention Center on Manus Island, but Still Won't Accept Asylum Seekers , August 17, 2016, on NYtimes.com
  13. ↑ Stephanie Anderson et al: PM unveils 'one-off' refugee resettlement deal with US , November 13, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016
  14. ↑ Manus Island detention center to close by year's end, inquest told , February 17, 2017, on The Guardian. Retrieved March 2, 2017
  15. ↑ Katharine Murphy, Ben Doherty: Trump lashes 'dumb deal' with Australia on refugees after fraught call with Turnbull , February 2, 2017, on The Guardian. Retrieved March 2, 2017
  16. ↑ Scores of detained asylum seekers take Australian cash and return home , March 2, 2017, on Reuters.
  17. ↑ Eric Tlozek: Chief Justice finds Manus Island detention center is actually closed , on ABC News. Retrieved March 18, 2017
  18. ↑ Australia has to pay asylum seekers $ 70 million in compensation , June 14, 2017, on Spiegel Online . Retrieved June 27, 2017
  19. ↑ theguardian.com September 6, 2017 / Ben Doherty: Manus Island: judge approves $ 70m compensation for detainees
  20. ↑ Despite catastrophic conditions: Refugees do not want to leave camps on Manus , on Spiegel Online , November 2, 2017, accessed on November 3, 2017
  21. ^ Russel Goldman, Damien Cave: What Is Happening on Manus Island? The Detainee Crisis Explained , on the New York Times November 2, 2017
  22. ↑ Helen Davidson, Ben Doherty: Refugee and journalist Behrouz Boochani released after arrest on Manus . on The Guardian. Retrieved November 23, 2017
  23. ↑ Behrouz Boochani wins Amnesty International award for writing from Manus
  24. ↑ Manus Island: MSF denied access to refugees as thousands rally in Australia , November 26, 2017, on The Guardian Australia. Retrieved November 26, 2017
  25. ^ New accommodation revealed for Manus Island detainees , October 9, 2017, on RNZ Pacific. Retrieved November 24, 2017

Coordinates: 2 ° 2 ′ 16 ″  S , 147 ° 22 ′ 9 ″  E