NAURU – A human rights group said Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has “blood on his hands” after the refugee who set himself alight in protest on Nauru died on Thursday.

The Refugee Action Coalition said the Immigration Department’s policies were responsible for the young man’s death.

“Omid, your blood is on Dutton’s hands, both for the delays to your evacuation, and for holding you hostage on Nauru till you broke. We’ll ensure that your martyrdom isn’t in vain. Shame Australia,” the group said on its Facebook page

On Nauru on Tuesday, during a visit by UN officials to the Nibok settlement where he lived with his wife, Omid set himself on fire, crying: “This is how tired we are, this action will prove how exhausted we are. I cannot take it anymore”.

Onlookers smothered the flames, and Omid was taken to the Republic of Nauru hospital before being airlifted out almost a day later. He was treated at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospital but died on Thursday.

A friend of Omid’s, who was present when set himself on fire, said Omid’s purpose was not a “fake demonstration”.

“He really decided to kill himself, sacrifice himself to finally prove it to Australians that he is suffering,” he said.

The wife of the deceased 23-year-old refugee has criticised delays in getting him off the island for medical care.

Before he died, Omid’s wife told Guardian Australia she did not expect him to survive, and blamed Australian officials for what she saw as delays in getting him to hospital in Queensland.

She said that once her husband was taken to the Nauru hospital it took two hours for a doctor from International Health and Medical Services to arrive and treat him and he was unable to be given intravenous pain relief.

She said that the hospital “didn’t even have a clean syringe”.

“Staff in Nauru hospital couldn’t help Omid in any way because they were unequipped,” she said.

She said Omid suffered a cardiac arrest during the night, and doctors performed emergency surgery with her consent. Upon arrival in Brisbane, she said doctors told her he was already brain dead.

Omid’s wife was brought to Brisbane and waited in the hospital with him, under guard. Some friends had spoken to her, she said, attempting to offer comfort before she was soon stopped from speaking.

“Currently I am in isolation in a way that I am not allowed to talk to anyone or do interviews,” she said.

“They have taken away my mobile phone so no one can contact me and I am being observed constantly by the officers that are accompanying me.”

Omid’s act was captured on mobile phone video.

The graphic video shows a few people nearby, who did not appear to be expecting him to go through with his threat of setting himself on fire.

When he did, they ran and tackled him to the ground, smothering the flames which had engulfed his body. He lay on the ground moaning, with severe burns across his body and head.

A second video shows him in the Nauru hospital, clearly conscious as he paces up and down while screaming – with severe burns apparent to his arms, legs, chest, and back – while distressed family members plead for him to be given assistance and painkillers.

Within hours of Omid’s act the Nauru government publicly deemed it a “political protest to coincide with the visit by representatives from UNHCR”.

“There is no value in such behaviour,” it said.

On Thursday night a vigil was held outside the Brisbane hospital, and detainees on Nauru wore T-shirts bearing Omid’s name while they held their 40th consecutive daily protest.

- PNC sources