IOM denies preying on Manus asylum seekers

Transcript

The International Organisation of Migration has denied allegations it is preying on vulnerable jailed asylum seekers on Manus Island to have them agree to return to their home countries.

The Refugee Action Coalition says 60 asylum seekers detained in Lorengau jail since participating in a mass hunger strike were solicited by the IOM last week in a bid to have them voluntarily return home.

Mary Baines reports.

The Coalition's spokesperson, Ian Rintoul, says the IOM is taking advantage of asylum seekers who have been abused and unlawfully held in Lorengau jail, without medical care or legal aid. He says asylum seekers are being coerced into repatriation as they face indefinite detention, fear of violence and poor conditions in the Australian-run detention centre. He says some are being offered 2,000 dollars to return to their country of origin, where they could face persecution.

"It's meant to be voluntary. But of course in the circumstances of Manus Island, people are coerced into those decisions by the delays, the draconian policies, the appalling conditions of the detention centre. And in the latest episode we've actually seen 60 people being crammed into appallingly crowded conditions in Lorengau jail. IOM actually went to the jail soliciting for people who were now interested in returning to their home country."

But the IOM's chief of mission in Papua New Guinea, George Gigauri says that is incorrect. He says the IOM went into the jail on the request of asylum seekers, and was not there to do an Assisted Voluntary Return, or AVR, screening.

"From the outset, we made it clear that there will be no discussion about return in a jail setting. We will only do those interviews once the people are back in the refugee processing centre. The discussion was merely to see what the people, what those individuals wanted from IOM, it was not an AVR screening by any means."

Mr Gigauri says the IOM has been running its AVR programme on Manus Island since July 2013 when the detention centre re-opened, and is funded by the Australian government. He says it has assisted 450 people to return to their home countries by taking care of logistics, transit documentation and reintegration, which sometimes involves payment to help people resettle in their home country. Mr Giguari says the process of voluntary return is treated on a case-by-case basis, involves a number of interviews and in no way is coercion involved.

"We do not get involved in any forced removal, in any return that involves coercion. And we have very strict guidelines and assessment processes in place to make sure that those people who do volunteer to return are indeed doing so on a voluntary basis."

PNG's Foreign Minister, Rimbink Pato, says many asylum seekers want to return to their country of origin. He says a large number have already returned voluntarily, and many will follow.

"Most of them, from the briefs I get, they would like to leave. And many of them are leaving on a voluntary basis. Clearly where they want to go back to their countries of origin, that's a move we encourage, and also the UN systems and the Australian government."

Mr Pato says PNG's policy on resettlement is still being defined. He says in the meantime, a process of determining genuine refugees has already commenced, of which 80 asylum seekers have been found eligible for resettlement. Mr Pato says the regional understanding is that those people will resettle in PNG, but other Pacific neighbours may want to participate.