| Manus Regional Processing Centre | |
| Opened: | 2001 |
| Former Name: | Manus Island Regional Processing Centre |
| Managed By: | Lombrum Naval Base |
| Street-Address: | Los Negros Island |
| Country: | Papua New Guinea |
The Manus Regional Processing Centre, or Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (MIRCP), was one of a number of offshore Australian immigration detention facilities. The centre was located on the PNG Navy Base Lombrum (previously a Royal Australian Navy base called HMAS Tarangau) on Los Negros Island in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea.
It was originally established in 2001, along with Nauru Regional Processing Centre, as an "offshore processing centre" (OPC) as part of the Pacific Solution policy created by the Howard government. After falling into disuse in 2003, it was formally closed by the first Rudd government in 2008, but reopened by the Gillard government in 2012. As part of the PNG Solution by the second Rudd government, it was announced in July 2013 that those sent to PNG would never be resettled in Australia. After Tony Abbott became PM in a change of government a few months later, the government announced its Operation Sovereign Borders policy, aimed at stopping maritime arrivals of asylum seekers to Australia, commencing on 18 September 2013.
Many high-profile and ordinary Australians called for the centre to be closed and the men brought to Australia or resettled elsewhere, over the seven years of its existence. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has cited the centre as an "indictment of a policy meant to avoid Australia's international obligations". It was formally closed on 31 October 2017; however hundreds of detainees ("transferees" according to the Australian government) refused to leave the centre and a stand-off ensued. On 23 November 2017, a few were resettled in the United States as part of a refugee swap deal.
Between August and November 2019, the last former detainees were moved to Port Moresby, with the government's regional processing contractors instructed to terminate services on 30 November 2019. High-profile detainee, the Iranian-Kurdish writer and activist Behrouz Boochani, went to New Zealand in November on a one-month visa to speak at WORD Christchurch event.
By November 2019 at least eight of the detainees had died by various means, including suicides, some on Manus and some after being transferred to Australia on medical grounds, since first being detained in the facility., over 100 men from Manus and Nauru were being detained in an hotel in Brisbane, after being transferred to the mainland for medical treatment, confined to quarters under a lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. They were released into the community in February 2021.
In October 2021, the Australian Government cut off all support to the 124 remaining men on the island, leaving PNG to take over responsibility for them.
The Manus Regional Processing Centre, officially Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (MIRCP),[1] was one of a number of offshore Australian immigration detention facilities[2] created after the Australian Government instituted its Operation Sovereign Borders policy, aimed at stopping maritime arrivals of asylum seekers to Australia.[3] The operation is the outcome of a 2013 federal election policy of the Coalition, which commenced on 18 September 2013 after the election of the Abbott government.[4]
The centre was located on the PNG Navy Base Lombrum (previously a Royal Australian Navy base called HMAS Tarangau) on Los Negros Island in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea.[5] [6]
From November 2012 the British services company G4S was responsible for its operation. From March 2014, security was managed by Wilson Security, while food and maintenance at the centre were operated by Transfield Services, later renamed Broadspectrum, until Ferrovial bought out that company and its contract in April 2016.[7] Broadspectrum later subcontracted Wilson to perform operations at Manus and Nauru. In September 2016 Wilson announced that it would be withdrawing at the end of its contract in October 2017, citing damage to its reputation,[8] and Ferrovial, major owner of Broadspecturm, also announced that it would cease providing services to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection at the same date.[9]
After the centre had officially ceased operating as a detention centre at the end of 2017, Paladin Holdings and NKW Holdings were given contracts to maintain the camp, which were terminated on 30 November 2019.[10]
University of Sydney immigration law specialist Professor Mary Crock says that Australia's history of offshore processing goes back to the 1960s, when Manus Island was set up to take refugees from West Papua.[11] Known as "Salasia Camp", it consisted of a few corrugated iron houses on a bare concrete slab, not far from a beach near the main town Lorengau. Indonesia was preparing a military takeover of the former Dutch New Guinea colony in the 1960s, causing thousands of refugees, known as "West Irians" to flee into the then Australian colony of Papua New Guinea. Many were turned back by Australian patrol officers on the border but a few dozen received special visas and the first were sent to Manus in 1968 by the Australian government, to a camp was built by Australia in order to avoid a diplomatic confrontation with Indonesia. According to historian Klaus Neumann of Deakin University, "Australia had not objected to Indonesia's takeover of the Dutch colony, and Australia had recognised Indonesia was now in charge of former Western New Guinea, so for Australia to grant refugee status posed a diplomatic problem". So by sending them to the remotest place in PNG the Australian authorities thought they would avoid any trouble with Indonesia. The camp was not a detention centre, and many stayed on, stateless, until in 2017, these West Papuans were finally offered PNG citizenship.[12]
The centre was originally established on 21 October 2001, as one of two Offshore Processing Centres (OPC). The other OPC was the Nauru detention centre. The OPC facilities were part of what became known as the "Pacific Solution", a policy of the Howard government in Australia, which was implemented in the wake of the Tampa affair. The policy involved the excision of Australian external territories (Christmas Island, Ashmore and Cartier Islands and Cocos (Keeling) Island) and other islands in the Pacific Ocean—from the Australian migration zone. Asylum-seekers arriving by boat without visas in these excised territories to seek asylum in Australia) were transferred to the OPC facilities where they would stay while their claims for asylum were processed. The centres were managed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The Manus Regional Processing Centre fell into disuse in preference to the Nauru centre. In July 2003, the immigration department announced that the centre would be wound down and the remaining detainees would be granted asylum and resettled in Australia. However, the centre would continue to be maintained in case the need for reactivation arose.
Aladdin Sisalem, a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian, fled Kuwait in 2000 and in December 2002 arrived at an island in the Torres Strait where he claimed asylum, and was sent to the Manus centre. For ten months, Sisalem was the sole detainee at the centre, with a small staff of guards and cleaners for company. In May 2004, he was resettled in Melbourne.[13]
With the election of the Rudd government (Labor) in 2007, the Manus Regional Processing Centre was formally closed in early 2008, fulfilling an election promise by Rudd to end the offshore processing system.
In 2012, a significant rise in the number of irregular maritime arrivals saw the "asylum issue" become a political liability for the government. The Gillard government commissioned Angus Houston, former Chief of the Defence Force, to lead an expert panel to conduct a review of asylum arrangements. Among the 22 recommendations made in the Houston report was one to re-open the OPC facilities on Nauru and at the Manus Regional Processing Centre.[14]
In November 2012, the Manus Regional Processing Centre was re-opened by the Labor government, due to the large volume of irregular maritime arrivals. Then Immigration Minister Chris Bowen stated "At this stage, family groups are best accommodated on Manus Island, as opposed to Nauru." The British services company G4S was responsible for its operation.[14]
In July 2013, shortly after Kevin Rudd returned as prime minister for a second time, the government announced that boat arrivals would never be allowed to resettle in Australia. The following month, it agreed to give Papua New Guinea A$400m (£230m; $310m) in aid in exchange for their part of the deal, which included agreeing to resettle refugees. Officially called the Regional Resettlement Arrangement between Australia and Papua New Guinea, the policy became known as the PNG Solution.[15] On 19 July 2013 Rudd and Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Peter O'Neill announced the Regional Resettlement Arrangement policy in Brisbane.[16]
After the Liberal/National coalition won the federal election on 7 September 2013, Tony Abbott was sworn in as Prime Minister,[17] and Operation Sovereign Borders came into effect, reinforcing the policy of no maritime arrivals being resettled in Australia.
The Australian government's decision to resume offshore processing met with domestic political opposition from the Greens.[18]
In March 2014, the contract with G4S expired, and the Australian government entered into a 20-month contract worth AUD $1.22 billion with Broadspectrum (which operated the facility in Nauru) for facilities management including building maintenance and catering,[19] with security provided by Wilson Security.[20]
On 17 February 2014, a series of protests by detainees at the centre escalated into a serious disturbance, which resulted in injuries to about 70 asylum seekers as well as the death of one detainee: 23-year-old Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati was murdered by being struck with wood and a rock.[21] [15] In April 2016 two detention centre workers, Joshua Kaluvia and Louie Efi, were each sentenced to 10 years in jail for Berati's murder.[22]
Robert Cornall was appointed in February 2014 to conduct "a review into the circumstances surrounding the Manus centre disturbances" leading up to Berati's death[23] with the primary focus on management of security at the centre.[24] [25] [26] [27] Cornall presented his review to the Immigration Department on 23 May 2014.[26] Cornall had previously conducted an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at the Manus Regional Processing Centre,[28] his report being presented to the Department in September 2013.[26] [29]
On 24 August 2014, 24-year-old Iranian asylum seeker Hamid Kehazaei sought medical treatment at the detention centre's clinic for an infected wound after cutting his foot.[15] Kehazaei's condition worsened and he could not be treated on the island. Medical staff sought his immediate evacuation, but permission was not granted until 26 August. Kehazaei was declared brain dead in a Brisbane hospital on 2 September 2016. With his family's permission, his life-support was switched off on 5 September 2016.[30] An inquest into Kehazaei's death began in the Coroner's Court in Brisbane on 28 November 2016.[31] The article "The day my friend Hamid Kehazaei died",[32] written by Behrouz Boochani, tells the story of Kehazaei's death.
In January 2015, up to 500 men went on a hunger strike, barricading themselves in the camp, with at least 20 men sewing their lips together in protest.[33] This was met with force.[34] In March 2015, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was "sick of being lectured" by the UN over Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, reiterating that its policy saves lives at sea.[15]
A controversial decision by the Australian government in July 2015 to make reporting of abuse within the centre illegal prompted staff at those centres to begin a campaign of civil disobedience.[35]
On 26 April 2016, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea found that the Centre breached the PNG constitution's right to personal liberty, and was thus illegal. It said: