(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Developments this week have brought the debate over the Australian government's offshore detention of asylum seekers back into the spotlight.
Iranian asylum seeker Hamid Kazaei suffered a heart attack after developing septicaemia from a cut to his foot sustained at the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea.
Almost simultaneously, confidential internal reports and the existence of a secret unit at the centre were exposed in the media.
Refugee advocacy groups says the developments continue to show the government has adopted the wrong policy on asylum seekers.
Sunil Awasthi reports.
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24 year old Hamid Kazaei lies brain dead in a Brisbane hospital.
The circumstances that put the young Iranian there are as controversial as they are tragic.
And they spread still further debate about the government's strategy for detaining and processing asylum seekers.
The Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul says Mr Kazaei's case is extreme, but not isolated.
"There are many more people like Hamid who've got infections, who've got skin problems, who've got rashes, who've got wounds full of pus. There is an epidemic of these kind of injuries and problems on Manus Island."
Mr Rintoul says the neglect, as he sees it, that leads to such medical hardship is cultural, creating a cruel irony for people who are trying to flee other parts of the world.
"There is, I suppose, a culture and physical conditions associated with the detention centre which just render it absolutely dysfunctional and appalling. The facility in Manus Island would not be acceptable in Syria, in Iraq, in Turkey, in Africa. That's how bad the conditions are."
Advocates say internal reports from Transfield Services, leaked this week, support those allegations.
The Federal Government appointed Transfield Services to run the Manus Island Detention Centre.
The situation reports monitor the behaviour of detainees closely and provide an assessment of the security situation within the centre.
Ben Pynt, from Humanitarian Research Partners, has studied the reports in detail and says they paint a bleak picture.
"On a random day that I looked at, out of the seven daily security and intelligence reports, there were 14 incidences of self-harm, three attempted suicides, one attempted escape ... About 17 people were listed as missing, and 17 people have displayed what they call agressive behaviour."
Fairfax newspapers have also carried revelations of a secret isolation unit for asylum seekers deemed to have been misbehaving on the Manus Island complex.
One Iranian man posted to Facebook he had been sent to the unit.
He says he was forced to sleep on muddy ground, beaten, and threatened with rape and murder if he did not retract his statement to police about the murder of Reza Barati.
Mr Barati, another Iranian asylum seeker, died at the facility in February.
The contractor providing health care to Manus Island detainees has told SBS it cares deeply about their wellbeing and has begun a review of its care in the latest case.
International Health and Medical Services says it also supports the review of the situation being carried out by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is defending the Government's role.
"Our focus in care has been on this young man from the moment he presented to medical officers at Manus Island and on focusing on the interests (of,) and engaging with, the family. That's where our attention has been. And that young man is still with us, but his condition, as you know, is extremely, extremely parlous."
Refugee advocates say the case of Hamid Kazaei and the latest allegations coming from the centre are further reason asylum seekers should be processed onshore.
Ian Rintoul says the Manus Island centre needs to be closed.
"I think it's very clear that Manus Island needs to be closed. We've had the death of Reza Barati. We've seen the consequence of the medical neglect and the appalling, unhygenic facilities, and the lack of proper medical attention now with the brain death of Hamid. It's very clear that Manus Island should be closed, that people can't be properly cared for there."
Ben Pynt, with Humanitarian Research Partners, says even many on the ground in Papua New Guinea do not want the asylum seekers kept there.
"The security situation on Manus Island is such that the locals threaten asylum seekers through the fence every day. Locals inside the centre who are now back working there also threaten the asylum seekers, as do the guards. It's a poisoned environment, and I don't think it's possible to recover."
