Papua New Guinea: Guardian reveals a policy of cruelty on Manus Island

Responding to The Guardian’s revelations that camp managers and security staff on Australia’s detention centre on Manus Island have sought to make conditions as inhospitable as possible, Amnesty International’s Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Champa Patel, said: “The documents published by the Guardian today reveal that the Australian government’s service providers planned a policy of deliberate cruelty, making life intolerable in order to coerce them to relocate.

“Despite warnings of the extreme risks that refugees would face, there were plans made to forcibly move them into new camps without a plan to resettle them. Such a callous indifference to the safety and well-being of refugees puts them at great risk. This inherently abusive system must be dismantled and the refugees must be brought to safety.

“There needs to be an immediate, independent and effective investigation into these shocking revelations and what the Australian government knew. And the people responsible must be held to account.”