Dear Khodayar, as I write to you the refugees on Manus
Island are digging wells in the ground in the hope of finding water. The court
has said that the prison is illegal so all the guards have left, but before
they went they cut the water pipes and removed the generators. There are about
600 men abandoned in the old gaol without food and water. Many of them are
sick.
Local people try to bring them food and medicine but the
soldiers outside the fences say they will shoot at any one who does. The
soldiers intercept the boats and cars that come from Lorengau and arrest people
bringing relief. The refugees are without power and lighting and are begging
for help in their sorry plight. They ask for the UNHCR (United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees) to come to their aid; for Red Crescent or Red Cross
to save them; for MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) to keep alive the sick and the
injured. They do not want to move into the new prisons that Australia has built
near by. They want to escape from their torment on Papua New Guinea to
somewhere that is safe.
They don’t want to be beaten anymore, nor hacked with
machetes. They refuse to be left to die through medical neglect as has
happened to their friends. They reject the illegal prisons that are designed to
harm them, where they have been locked for so many years. Nevermore. Love
Stephen
