Iranians must complete two years of national service when they turn eighteen. One of my young friends told me two weeks ago that the time he had spent in the Iranian army, which is notoriously tough, was nothing compared to the terrible conditions he had to endure in Manus. I hate to think of these precious young ones in this awful place. This first hand account from a Manus staff member has been trimmed: The following submission is information from my experience on Manus through work and talking with other stakeholder staff. I have been repeatedly made aware that any breach of confidentiality agreement in relation to releasing information on island operations is punishable. I worked with the Salvation Army off shore humanitarian mission from 18th of September 2012 till 1st of February 2014 as a general support worker. ...Compounds were plagued by the smell of raw sewage and food smells mixed together. Toilets when cleaned involved sweeping excess sewage into the compound grounds. Manus is an extremely hot and wet environment apart from client rooms there is very little shelter and relief from the elements. Mosquitos are prolific on Manus; staff was told that they needed to take anti malaria medication as a precaution but to not take Mefloquine because it can cause serious side effects. I became aware from IHMS staff Clients on Manus Island were given Mefloquine despite the warnings to staff. During my period or work I took Doxycycline and suffered severe sunburns, mood swings, lack of sleep and night terrors. To the point that many staff and myself stopped taking medication, clients also suffered severe effects from the malaria tablets when they were administered and resulted in many refusing medication. During my work I witnessed many clients being quarantined for malaria, typhoid, diarrhea/food poisoning, skin lesions and scabies. We were informed by senior Salvation Army staff that we should all be checked when we went off rotation for tuberculosis. ... Salvation army staff were told many times to inform clients that under PNG law offensive language and actions are punishable by law, also that it is permissible under PNG law that if a client offends a local female their family member are legally allowed to seek justice in any form he wishes. During my period of work on Manus I found many male expat guards to have offensive views to both clients and to female staff, I often was engaged by guards that aired opinions that “clients were expecting to much and if they didn’t like it they should * off home”, “they should have all been shot like they will when there sent back” and suggesting to clients words that have offensive meaning in Australian and Papuan new Guinean culture. This resulted in many clients receiving discipline actions ... IHMS staff presented as and under equipped and stretched thin for both staff and medical supplies. Anti malaria medication was dispersed sporadically and caused issues, many time clients returned from medical having been told that nothing could be done for broken bones, shrapnel wounds, skin lesions and other issues saying they had received bandages and water and Panadol this resulted in many client refusing to attend medical and treating issues on there own through the opinion that medical was useless and didn’t care. [Incident at the Manus Island Detention Centre from 16 February to 18 February 2014 Submission 6] There are many of these submissions and the stories coming out of Manus are much the same as they were then. Panadol is giving for everything - including to my young friend the day he had come out of hospital after having morphine injections. IHMS refused to give him anything stronger, I was livid, but held back from going to the office to demand something stronger. You know the rest of the story .. before he was fully recovered they dropped him into Manus last Wednesday at midnight.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 11:17:17 +0000
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