Letters to Tyranny #59

Dear Prime Minister,

Perhaps the 59th asylum seeker on Manus Island is the man that Behrouz Boochani wrote about on September 24th. He needed hospital treatment in Port Moresby but his ticket to travel there was cancelled arbitrarily and when he protested he was put in jail for two days. In the letter I received from 'JC', Director ABF Ministerial Correspondence Section Support Group - Australian Border Force, 17 August 2016, he wrote 'All transferees at the Manus RPC receive clinically indicated health care, broadly consistent with Australian public health standards." This is a lie. No Australian has their access to medical treatment denied and then gets put in jail when they protest.

Your statement at the United Nations has had a direct, damaging impact on the detainees in offshore detention. Your actions are causing harm to vulnerable people who have asked for help.

Bring them here.

Ruth Halbert