AUSTRALIA – Australia has been labelled ‘a rogue state’ by lawyers troubled by the pending deportation of a Manus Island asylum seeker from Papua New Guinea.

Azzam el Sheikh committed self-harm to avoid previous attempts to send him back to Lebanon, where he claims his life and his family will be in danger if he returns.

Exactly one year since the PNG Supreme court ruled the detention of asylum seekers was unconstitutional, on 26 April, El Sheikh, could be deported, according to refugee advocates.

A spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance the barrister, Greg Barns, said by deporting him Australia would be breaking international law and committing what is known as refoulement.

“Australia has an obligation under the United Nations conventions in relation to refugees, not to return a person to a situation where they may be tortured or subjected to cruel and unusual punishment or face the risk of death,” Barns said.

“There have been quite a number of people that the Australian government has forcibly deported who have either been killed on return to Afghanistan or been detained and subjected to torture,” he said.

“When a person is extremely unwell, as Azzam is, and is clearly not in a fit mental or physical state to travel, then it’s certainly in breach of Australia’s obligations to force a person in those circumstances onto a plane.”

The Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection said the government of PNG had decided asylum seekers detained at the Manus island processing centre found not to be refugees must depart the country.

But Barns said the refugee determination process on Manus Island was deeply flawed.

He said a recent report by the Australian Senate supported his conclusion that the decision to deport el Sheikh was Australia’s.

“The Australian government has been beastly careless for a number of years now, about the rights of individuals it deports.

“It’s yet another example of how Australia for the last two decades has become a rogue state when it comes to the treatment of refugees and when it comes to the treatment of asylum seekers and deportation.”

The first two attempts to move El Sheikh from Manus to Port Moresby were thwarted by the asylum seeker’s physical resistance and acts of self harm.

Badly injured, El Sheikh was tossed into a police cell where he went on hunger strike and appealed for clemency from the Australian government via Youtube.

The Refugee Action Collective’s, Margaret Sinclair, said El Sheikh was in no condition to resist a third attempt to deport him.

“There was maybe a couple of dozen different security forces escorting Azzam onto the plane from Manus Island to Port Moresby and by that stage, because he had 12 days of hunger strike and a number of injuries,he couldn’t make any resistance,” Sinclair said.

“It’s a very strange thing to have people in jail when they haven’t been charged with any offences. That was actually the basis of the Papua New Guinea court decision. Detaining people in a jail without charge contravenes the constitution of Papua New Guinea.”

Sinclair said El Sheikh had been in Port Moresby’s Bomana prison since April 11 and had not been given access to a lawyer or treatment for a suspected broken ankle and broken ribs.

She said it would be unethical for any airline to transport El Sheikh out of Papua New Guinea.

Another Manus Island detainee, Naji, said he had been in contact with El Sheikh and said his friend had been “left in prison to rot”.

“His health is getting worse and especially his foot. He hasn’t got any medicine yet and still without showering and in the same clothing since they took him from here,” Naji said.

“The doctor in the prison said he needs hospital and I think a couple of days ago the Red Cross visited him and they wanted to take him to hospital but they couldn’t.”

“ All I can say about Azzam is he will be in danger if they send him back by force.”

- RNZI