Fiji forces Iranian refugee back to Papua New Guinea
CANBERRA, Australia — Fiji outraged rights groups on Friday by forcing an Iranian refugee back to Papua New Guinea where he had spent more than three years under Australia’s tough asylum seeker policies and where he said he feared persecution.
Loghaman Sawari’s plight shines a spotlight on the human suffering behind Australia’s harsh policy of banishing asylum seekers to remote Pacific islands at a time the United States considers giving hundreds of them homes.
Sawari, 21, flew to Fiji last week to apply for a protection visa but was deported before he could lodge that application with Fijian immigration officials at the capital Suva, said lawyer Aman Ravindra-Singh, who was with Sawari when he was arrested outside Suva.
“He’s scared of ending up in Manus in a hell hole,” Ravindra-Singh said, referring to Manus Island where Papua New Guinea’s mosquito-infested immigration camp is located.