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Probe calls after refugee dies at Australia camp

  (Agence France-Presse)
Sydney, Australia
Mon, August 7, 2017

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Probe calls after refugee dies at Australia camp  This file undated photo obtained from the Refugee Action Coalition on Feb18, 2014 shows a man walking between tents at Australia's regional processing center on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. (AFP/Refugee Action Coalition)

R

ights groups called Monday for an independent inquiry after another refugee was found dead at a detention camp in Papua New Guinea in a tragedy they said was preventable.

Australia sends anyone who tries to enter by boat without a visa to remote processing facilities in Nauru and on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island. Even those subsequently found to be genuine refugees are barred from settling in Australia.

The Refugee Action Coalition said the Iranian man was found hanging from a tree, although this was not confirmed and it is unclear whether it was suicide.

"This death is yet another bleak tragedy to arise out of the ongoing suffering and tensions on Manus Island," Amnesty International Australia said.

"There must be an independent, impartial, prompt and effective investigation into his death."

The Human Rights Law Centre said the man was the fifth held on Manus to die since Canberra's offshore regime began in July 2013.

"This man deserved to be treated with basic decency and respect. He deserved a chance to rebuild his life in freedom and safety," said Daniel Webb, director of legal advocacy at the law centre.

"Instead, our government chose to be cruel, imprisoning him indefinitely on a remote island in truly awful conditions."

Conditions in the camp, and the other one on Nauru in the Pacific, have been widely criticised by refugee advocates and medical professionals, with reports of widespread abuse, self-harm and mental health problems.

 

 

 

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