Australia Tours Pacific to Solve Problem of Maligned Detention Centers
The future of Australia’s widely condemned offshore detention centers is under discussion. The controversial facilities for holding asylum seekers will be the subject of talks between Australia and Papua New Guinea.
A two-day visit, starting on April 7, by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to the Pacific island nation comes as rights groups seek the closure of the centers.
One of the two Pacific island detention centers, on Manus, was ordered closed by the Papua New Guinea supreme court last year.
“The primary reason for Turnbull’s visit is to discuss economic prospects, but the topic of Manus island will be addressed, too,” a source told Reuters.
The trip to Papua New Guinea follows a similar meeting with the president of Nauru, which hosts Australia’s second Pacific detention center.
Australia’s mounting desperation to close the centers saw it forge a deal with the U.S. under which the latter agreed to resettle some inmates who qualified as refugees. The deal has been described by U.S. President Donald Trump, who took office after it was struck, as “dumb.”
Misrata Authorities Release Nigerians and Eritreans
Authorities in Libya have released a group of Nigerians and Eritreans detained for months following their escape from an ISIS enclave in Sirte. The sub-Saharan Africans, mostly women and children, say they were taken hostage while trying to reach Europe through Libya.
Following their escape from Sirte, where they were forced to convert to Islam and the women in the group were sold as sex slaves, the 28 Eritreans and seven Nigerians were detained by militias in the port city of Misrata and further mistreated, they told a Reuters reporter in November.
They are now under the care of the U.N. refugee agency and the Libyan Red Crescent, before being taken to a shelter for medical checks.
“I’m very happy, I can’t describe how I feel, but I am very happy. I can start a new life and see my family again,” said a 14-year-old Eritrean girl.
“We will send them to a safe house where they can be treated if they need medical treatment, and receive assistance from us, and be protected,” said Samer Haddadin, head of the UNHCR’s Libya mission.
The Eritreans are expected to be resettled as refugees, said the UNHCR.
Refugees Tell of Horrors at South Sudan Border Town
Refugees fleeing South Sudan into Uganda have described horrific scenes in the border town of Pajok. Those trying to escape had their throats slit by soldiers, who also ran over two children with a car, according to witnesses.
The SPLA, South Sudan’s government forces, denied attacking civilians and said the operation on April 4 was aimed at flushing out rebel soldiers.
“What I know is that the bandits are looting and killing the population in Pajok,” an SPLA spokesman told Reuters.
The denials contradict the testimony of many of the 3,000 South Sudanese who have crossed the border in recent days, joining hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled the world’s youngest country for Uganda.
A farmer, Password Okot, 30, told reporters in Uganda how his two brothers were killed. Government soldiers grabbed one of them from a crowd before tying him up and slitting his throat, and then finally stringing up his body in a doorway. His other brother was shot during the ensuing panic.
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