The Manus letter

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