Aussies have been left reeling after pictures of a seriously ill asylum seeker languishing in an offshore detention centre were made public. <\/p>\n
Hatam Yekta, 36, from Iran attempted to reach Australia by boat in 2013 but never made it.<\/p>\n
He was first sent to Manus Island but is now at Port Moresby, in Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n
Activists say his health is rapidly deteriorating with activists warning he \u201cmay only have days to live\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, Australia has argued that it is Papua New Guinea\u2019s responsibility to care for the 60 asylum seekers under the offshore detention programme.<\/p>\n
Refugee Action Coalition say Mr Yekta is one of 10-12 other refugees who are suffering from \u201cserious mental health\u201d conditions.<\/p>\n
The charity urging the government to bring Mr Yetka to Australia under medical evacuation legislation that was repealed in December, 2019 right after his application was approved. <\/p>\n
In the last two weeks, \u201chundreds of letters, emails and phone calls have been made to Labor, Green, and independent MPs\u201d, the organisation\u2019s spokesperson Ian Rintoul said <\/p>\n
Calling for immediate action, Mr Rintoul said it was \u201csimply unconscionable\u201d to leave Mr Yekta without the medical help that he desperately needs. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe injustice of leaving Hatam to die in PNG is obvious. The humanitarian thing to do is to bring Hatam to Australia,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He claimed Labor had a \u201cparticular responsibility\u201d towards Mr Yekta, because he was sent to the detention centre under their government, and the medivac legislation was also introduced under their government that brought some asylum seekers to safety in 2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Australian Government does not have any role in the ongoing management for individuals remaining in PNG,\u201d the Department of Home Affairs told RNZ Pacific last month. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government is responsible for the management of individuals remaining in PNG who were formerly under regional processing arrangements.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 7,000 people have signed a petition for urgent intervention and immediate medical evacuation of Mr Yekta. <\/p>\n
Many are expressing their shock at the sight of his photographs. <\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, refugees from the detention centre who are now settled in New Zealand, protested outside the Australian consulate in Auckland calling for an urgent intervention. <\/p>\n
AMr Rintoul said, \u201ctime is running out,\u201d calling Home Affairs minister Tony Burke to take immediate action. <\/p>\n
Senate Inquiry recommendations \u2018simply not enough\u2019<\/p>\n
A Senate inquiry into Australia\u2019s offshore processing and resettlement arrangements began November last year. <\/p>\n
Testimonies submitted to the inquiry exposed the harsh conditions, severe physical and psychological harm that asylum seekers endured in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. <\/p>\n
The inquiry led by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee submitted a report on July 2, calling for transparency, regular audits and due diligence measures. <\/p>\n
However, the recommendations have been criticised by human rights and refugee advocates who have said they were \u201csimply not enough\u201d. <\/p>\n
In a joint statement multiple organisations including Refugee Council of Australia, and Human Rights Law centre have called for the end of detention centres saying they caused \u201cprofound and ongoing harm\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have died, children have been harmed, families have been torn apart, countless lives have been destroyed and billions of dollars in public money have flowed through contracts that remain shrouded in secrecy,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Human Rights Law Centre associate legal director, Laura John said the inquiry was a \u201cmissed opportunity\u201d to end more than a decade of corruption and deliberate cruelty towards asylum seekers and refugees. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aussies have been left reeling after pictures of a seriously ill asylum seeker languishing in an offshore detention…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-801838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}