Manus violence that killed Reza Barati 'eminently foreseeable', parliamentary inquiry finds
Failure to properly process claims for refugee status and an
overcrowded, insecure facility led to widespread frustration and two
days of rioting, report says
The aftermath of the unrest in the Manus Island detention centre. Photograph: Guardian
The violence that killed Reza Barati in the Manus Island
detention centre was “eminently foreseeable” and the Australian
government is responsible for his death, a parliamentary inquiry has
found.
In a 156-page report,
the parliamentary committee found that the Australian government’s
failure to properly process claims for refugee status and an
overcrowded, insecure facility had led to widespread frustration and two
days of rioting.
The report said: “The events … were eminently foreseeable and may
have been prevented. It is clear from evidence presented to the
committee that the Australian government failed in its duty to protect
asylum seekers including Reza Barati from harm.”
Barati
was beaten to death in rioting in the detention centre on 18 February.
He was allegedly beaten with a stick by detention centre staff then had a
rock dropped on his head, killing him.
Two Papua New Guinean men who worked at the detention centre have been charged with his murder. Their trial is expected to begin early next year.
The report said Australia had “effective control” of the centre and
should pay compensation to Barati’s family and to others injured – one
man was shot, another blinded – during the violence.
The committee comprised three Labor members, two from the Coalition and one from the Greens.
The two Coalition members issued a dissenting report, saying the
Manus facility had been opened by the Labor government and that the
majority report was “an attempt … to rewrite history”.
But they disagreed with only two of the majority report’s six
recommendations – those that referred to payment of compensation to the
victims of the riot and access to Manus Island for journalists, lawyers
and the United Nations.
The majority report also found:
- The detention centre was not secure from outside incursion, despite knowledge of local hostility for more than 18 months.
- The centre was overcrowded – at double its intended capacity – with new arrivals.
But it was the failure to process refugee claims, and to explain to
asylum seekers what was going to happen to them, that was the major
cause of violence, it found.
“The
hopelessness of the situation transferees found themselves in, with no
clear path forward and no certainty for the future, was the central
factor in the incident,” the report said.
The committee found that PNG and Australian staff from Transfield and
Wilson had attacked asylum seekers: “It is undeniable that a
significant number of local service provider staff, as well as a small
minority of expat staff, were involved in the violence against
transferees.”
In June 2013 families and children were removed from Manus, making it
an men-only centre. This led to an “increased likelihood of tensions
leading to violence”, the committee found.
It said in the aftermath of the violence the immigration minister, Scott Morrison,
had given information to the media that was wrong – he said PNG police
had never entered the detention centre, when they had – that was not
corrected for four days.
Those police, the committee found, were under Australia’s effective
control. “Australia was effectively financing the PNG police mobile
squad deployed at the centre, both prior to and during the events in
which its members assaulted transferees,” the report said.
The parliamentary committee asked the prime minister, Tony Abbott,
the foreign minister, Julie Bishop, and the immigration minister for
permission to visit the centre but said it had received no response from
any of them.
But staff who were on the island said violence on Manus was
inevitable because of the conditions under which detainees were held.
Nicole Judge, who had previously worked on Nauru, told the inquiry:
“I thought I had seen it all: suicide attempts, people jumping off
buildings, people stabbing themselves, people screaming for freedom
while beating their heads on concrete.
“Unfortunately, I was wrong. I had not seen it all. Manus Island
shocked me to my core. I saw sick and defeated men crammed behind fences
and being denied their basic human rights, padlocked inside small areas
in rooms often with no windows and being mistreated by those who were
employed to care for their safety.”
Morrison’s office has not returned calls seeking his response to the report.
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, a participating member of the
inquiry, said: “We know now that Reza Barati’s death was entirely
preventable. The government was warned repeatedly that the situation
there was deteriorating and that security provisions were inadequate.”
She said the minister’s behaviour after the riots had been “reprehensible”.
“He lied to the Australian people and blamed the victims themselves.
The mountain of evidence submitted to this inquiry all points to one
undeniable fact: the Manus Island centre is untenable and must be closed
down now.”
The dissenting report acknowledged “logistic and operational”
challenges on Manus, but said the government had overcome these with
upgrades to infrastructure and improvements to work practices and
training.
It did not comment on the findings of the majority report that Morrison had misled the Australian public.
Amnesty International
Australia’s refugee coordinator, Dr Graham Thom, said asylum seekers
and refugees on Manus were still not safe. “The PNG and Australian
governments now propose to move recognised refugees into the community
on Manus Island, with no apparent steps taken to ease hostility between
the detainees and the community on Manus Island, nor to protect the
refugees placed in the community from reprisals and further violence.”
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