‘Visa issues’ led to man’s death

AUSTRALIA – A sick Iranian asylum seeker on Manus Island missed a flight to Port Moresby because of “visa issues”, an inquest into his death in Australia has heard.

The Queensland coroner is investigating the death of 24-year-old Hamid Khazaei, who died in Brisbane’s Mater Hospital in August 2014, 13 days after presenting to a health clinic at the Manus Island refugee processing centre in Papua New Guinea.

He suffered severe sepsis from a leg infection and was later moved to Port Moresby before being flown to Brisbane where nothing could be done to save his life.

This week in the court in Brisbane the inquest heard from Doctor Marten Muis, who had just arrived to work on the temporarily on the island when he was told to organise an urgent evacuation of Khazaei to a Port Moresby hospital.

Dr Muis said as the medical team were making flight preparations, he rang his International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) colleagues as he had not heard if the flight had been confirmed.

Dr Muis said he was told, “It’s not happening because we haven’t obtained a visa”.

He said he was told people in detention in Papua New Guinea needed a visa to leave Manus Island.

“It was really all double Dutch to me,” Dr Muis said.

He said he was told there were no other options to get Khazaei off the island until the following day as there were no medical evacuations at night.

Dr Muis said he was told, “I’m very sorry but you’re on your own and you’ll have to keep this man overnight”.

Dr Muis said when he arrived at the clinic the next day, Khazaei had rapidly deteriorated.

“He was the most awful colour I’d ever seen in a human being,” Dr Muis said. “I’ve never seen anyone deteriorate that fast,” he said.

Dr Muis was filling in as the senior medical officer on Manus Island for 11 days. He said Khazai was already a patient when he started working at the clinic.

Dr Muis said he was not familiar with the medical evacuation plans or policies by IHMS.

He told the inquest while he received a comprehensive security induction and a physical examination, he was not given much of an induction in terms of the facilities of the Manus Island clinic.

“It was an extremely basic set up,” he said. “The only test we could do at the time I was there was a malaria test.”

Khazaei was eventually evacuated to Port Moresby. The inquest continues. - ABC