He and Kaium, who is not in the resettlement process for the US, are desperate to get off the island and end their indefinite detention. But he has been engaged in the process for more than three years already and neither Shofiqul Islam nor Kaium knows when they will be released. Shofiqul Islam has begun the process of applying for resettlement in the US under a 2016 resettlement arrangement between Canberra and Washington. The last four of more than 200 children who were once detained on Nauru were resettled to the United States in 2019. Self-harm and even suicidal behaviour were reported among children held there.
Mental health is also a serious issue for the detainees. Refugees have been medically evacuated following attacks and for the treatment of chronic illness. The abuse and neglect of detainees - in what rights group Amnesty International described as Nauru’s “open-air prison” - have been well documented. They hate us.” Mohammad Kaium, left, and Mohammad Shofiqul Islam, right, have sewn their lips together in protest against the 10 years they have been detained on Nauru island by the Australian government “Here in Nauru, very poor medical treatment,” he continued.
“In Nauru, people are treat us like we are animals - not human,” he said. Since 2015, refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru have been detained in the wider island community.īut the situation is “not safe”, Shofiqul Islam said. Their boats were intercepted by the Australian navy and they were eventually sent to Nauru. The two men travelled separately to Australia from Bangladesh in 2013, he said, to seek asylum from persecution in their home country. “We don’t eat and don’t drink until we get our medical treatment and freedom.” “We closed our lips and we stopped eating and drinking … we can’t speak,” Shofiqul Islam said. “We are hunger strik,” he wrote in a message to Al Jazeera. Mohammad Shofiqul Islam spoke for them both via the WhatsApp messaging service from where they are holding their protest near RPC1, the administrative hub for refugee services and security in Nauru. The two protesters, Mohammad Shofiqul Islam and Mohammad Kaium, have been detained on Nauru for nearly 10 years. The policy has had an extreme effect on refugees and asylum seekers held under its stipulations.Ībout 150 refugees and asylum seekers are currently in Nauru and PNG, with little to no knowledge of when - or, if ever - they will be resettled. Some were also sent to Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) Manus Island for processing, with all of them told they would never be allowed to settle in Australia. Two refugees on the tiny island nation of Nauru - a five-hour plane journey from Australia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean - have sewn their lips together in protest against their almost decade-long detention on the island.Īustralia has used Nauru since July 2013 to detain asylum seekers who travel to Australia by boat.
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