A cricket tournament is underway on Manus Island involving refugees stuck on the Papua New Guinea Island.
Cricket is a passion for many of the roughly 900 men from countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, who were sent to Manus for offshore processing by Australia in the past three and a half years.
PNG's Supreme Court ruled in April that it was illegal to detain the men against their will on Manus and that they should be released, but no resettlement options have materialised.
As Johnny Blades found out, this week's cricket tournament is a welcome distraction for the men from the prolonged mental torture of being held on Manus.
Refugees stuck on PNG's Manus Island play in a cricket tournament.
Photo: Supplied
Transcript
The tournament started on Monday, and involves a number of teams representing nationalities of refugees held on Manus. One of those taking to the field is Naseem Haider, from Pakistan.
"So different countries participating in this cricket, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. And the Manus new cricket team is also participating and Manus Cricket have also a very good team."
It was difficult to organise the tournament, taking over six months to get the go ahead. It's understood that PNG Cricket was initially reluctant to approve the tournament. But Mr Haider says eventually the green light was given.
"John, what was our ambition is just that we all have some talent which is our hobby as well from childhood until now. And we were just trying to promote the cricket in Papua New Guinea as Papua New Guinea is now developing and making a good career in cricket."
The involvement of a team from Manus itself in this tournament casts a new light on the various reports about hostile local attitudes towards refugees over recent years. Mr Haider says it's good to participate together in this tournament, which aims to promote the burgeoning Papua New Guinea cricket scene.
"So we are trying with them to help with them to promote cricket as much as they know from us. So we are just giving a good test of our success we now have one cricket, PNG cricket team here which is playing with us in this league. And we are very happy about that they are playing with us so at least we can promote the cricket here. And the big thing is that here there is a lot of problem with us, like a lot of tension, we are in the limbo. It is very hard for us to play our cricket properly here. But as we are doing our best and we are playing with them, we are promoting cricket."
That's Naseem Haider, who plays for one of the two Pakistan teams in the Manus cricket tournament.
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