The refugees were right all along

For the past month, Australia officially closed its Manus Island concentration camp. However, the refugees there refused to move, because the new concentration camps they were supposed to move to were both unfinished and dangerous. On Friday, PNG police stormed the camp, beating refugees and loading them into buses for a forcible transfer. And after all the violence and brutality, the refugees were right all along:

A Manus Island refugee says there is not enough space in new facilities for the men forcibly removed from the decommissioned detention centre.

[...]

Sudanese refugee Abdul Aziz Adam is one of about 25 men unable to find a bed in the new facilities that pictures show are still under construction, despite Australian government claims to the contrary.

"For myself its been 48 hours I couldn't find a place to sleep," Mr Adam said on Sunday.

"There are about 25 men still living in a classroom. We spoke to the authority but they say the prison camp is not ready and they're doing their best to make it ready maybe in the next couple of weeks," he said.

Mr Adam said more than 350 men had been crammed into the East Lorengau Transit Centre, which he said only had room for 290.

Meanwhile, the refugees are being denied even basic medical care, because the Australian government wants to prevent people from seeing how bad conditions are. But officially, They Are Not Being Detained. They're simply being kept somewhere against their will and prevented from leaving or communicating at the behest of the Australian government. Which I guess shows how much respect the PNG government has for the rulings of its courts: none whatsoever.

This is just the same Australian torture in a different place. New Zealand should not tolerate it. Instead, we should give all of these refugees a home here. And if Australia doesn't like it, fuck 'em.

Manus needs a rescue flotilla

On October 31, Australia finally closed its concentration camp on Manus Island. But rather than leaving, the refugees refused to move, because the new concentration camps Australia wanted to put them were even more dangerous than the one they were in. Over the next three weeks, Australia's colonial mercenaries, the PNG police, laid siege to the camp, cutting off food and water supplies, and eventually destroying buildings. Yesterday, they finally moved in and started clearing the refugees by force. Refugees were beaten and loaded onto buses, while journalist Behrouz Boochani was arrested (though what for is entirely unclear). Today, they are apparently finishing the job. The entire operation was arrested by and performed for the benefit of Australia (it was announced by their immigration minister, FFS), which shows that they are continuing to pull the strings regardless of all their denials of responsibility. And that string-pulling includes bullying PNG into refusing to let the refugees come to New Zealand.

The refugees on Manus have been tortured, beaten, starved, and denied medical care. The new "PNG run" concentration camps will continue to do the same, with the added extra danger of victimisation and murder by the local community.

we cannot let this happen in our back yard. And if the New Zealand government can't or won't act, New Zealand citizens should. Its time for a rescue flotilla for Manus Island.

How it works in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, is facing a confidence vote tomorrow. So naturally, now is the obvious time to pay every government MP US$900,000...

A Papua New Guinea Treasury source has revealed that the government has ordered a payment of US$900,000 to each government MP at the so-called 'Alotau retreat'.

The national broadcaster NBC reported the source, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the Finance Department was instructed to make payments ahead of tomorrow's vote of no-confidence in prime minister Peter O'Neill.

MPs who converged for the talks in Alotau and committed to support Mr O'Neill were in line for the payments, which were to be provided under the District Services Improvement Programme.

Officially, these funds are supposed to be used by MPs (but only government MPs, mind) to improve infrastructure in their districts. But what it actually is is a slush and bribery fund. And even if applied to their intended purpose, it still directs public spending to the government's supporters, effectively imposing a political test on the receipt of public services.

This practice is simply corrupt. Sadly, its the way politics works in PNG.