Fainting Manus detainee 'treated with Panadol,' asylum seeker claims

An asylum seeker at the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea claims a fellow detainee who was injured in February's riots now faints several times a day, bleeds from the nose and is being treated with Panadol.

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(AAP)



The claim, which SBS has been unable to independently verify, is made in a letter to an asylum-seekers advocate who runs a writing program for detainees and has regular communication with both the writer and many other detainees.

The writer of the letter, an Iranian who cannot be named, wrote:

"There is an Iranian asylum seeker in Manus, Foxtrot Camp - (name supplied) - who they hit in his head on February the 16th and made a seven-centimetre gap on his head. Now, he falls to the ground and faints. The doctors just give him Panadol headache pills.

"He needs to be checked by MRI medical machine, but they do not send him to hospital. Today, he fainted for the fourth time at 5pm.

"He was bleeding from his nose and faint when they took him to the medical [centre]. Every day, it happens to him."
"There has been nothing done, and these guys are getting sicker and sicker and sicker."
A spokesman for the Immigration Minister maintains the contracted health-care provider International Health and Medical Services is providing comprehensive service for all Manus transferees.

In a statement to SBS a spokesman for Scott Morrison said: Where people require medical treatment, they receive it. The Minister is advised that transferees injured during the incident in mid-February that require ongoing treatment, as assessed by IHMS, are receiving that treatment for their injuries. Should any additional health needs be identified over time, they will receive treatment accordingly."

But Victorian writer and poet Janet Galbraith, who received the letter, said it came from a detainee she has corresponded with extensively and trusts "absolutely".

Ms Galbraith is founder of the group Writing Through Fences, which encourages asylum seekers in detention centres to express their feelings through creative writing.

She said in the process of running that program, she has found herself in regular correspondence with many asylum seekers offering the specifics of conditions within the camps.
"[He] is becoming more and more ill, and he's collapsing four or five times a day."
She described the writer of the letter as one of the men working hard to keep other detainees on Manus Island sane.

"I speak to this man ... and I've known him for many months now. I run an online writing group which is comprised of people from all of the detention centres run by Australia. He's one of those people," said Ms Galbraith.

Ms Galbraith said various letter-writers keep her informed on how many detainees have tried to kill themselves and who they are, detainees who they think are going insane and those who are injured.

But she said this letter points to a problem she feels is getting no attention, that the injured just continue to get worse.
"Many people of Australia care about crabs, fishes and dogs but they do not care about us. We are human, exactly like them. We have wisdom and feelings, too."
"[That guy] is becoming more and more ill, and he's collapsing four or five times a day," she said.

"I think what we don't hear is that it's actually getting worse. There has been nothing done, and these guys are getting sicker and sicker and sicker."

The letter reads: "Many people of Australia care about crabs, fishes and dogs but they do not care about us. We are human, exactly like them. We have wisdom and feelings, too."

According to Ms Galbraith, the detainee also wrote of others still suffering from serious injuries incurred in the riot, where, according to an official report released by the federal government, one person died and 69 were injured.

He writes of one with a bullet still in his body from what he calls "that terrible night," another dealing with the loss of an eye and another whose throat was cut.

All of those injuries were included in the official report on the February violence, written by the former head of the federal Attorney-General's Department.


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4 min read

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By Ron Sutton


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