A Palestine Man's PNG Plight

A sole Middle Eastern asylum seeker detained on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island since December 2002 is hoping New Zealand will accept him if his resettlement application being processed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is successful.

Aladdin Sisalem, 25, born to a Palestinian father and Egyptian mother, is the only occupant at the Australian government-funded Lombrum processing centre on Manus Island, after the departure of three Iraqi asylum seekers last July.

Australian immigration officers flew him to the processing centre built on the island's Lombrum naval base from Saibai Island in the Torres Strait on December 20, 2002 after he asked for asylum.

Services provided at the centre run by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) include accommodation, food, health care, counselling, education, kindergarten, security, satellite television and Internet. Sisalem has been hit by a cycle of problems after the exodus of most of Lombrum's asylum seekers early last year, including alleged food and medicine shortage and emotional and psychological strain due to the long delays by authorities to process his case.

The Australian High Commission in Port Moresby and the PNG immigration office have refused to comment on his case, despite him being held in a facility established in October 2001, as part of Australian Prime Minister John Howard's Pacific Solution.

Over 1000 asylum seekers had been processed at Lombrum. The PNG processing centre was established a month after a similar facility was set up on Nauru. Both are key components of Howard's controversial policy to deter boat people getting into Australia ‹depriving them of the protection of the Australian courts and avoiding the limited scrutiny of onshore detention centres.

The memorandum of understanding signed on October 11, 2001 governing the PNG facility's operation expired in October last year. But the PNG government has been silent about its decision last December at the 15th Australia-Papua New Guinea Ministerial Forum in Adelaide, South Australia, to extend for a further 12 months the agreement on the Manus processing facility.

Sisalem's attempt to return to his former country of residence‹Kuwait‹was dealt a blow when UNHCR's PNG liaison officer, Johann Siffointe, informed him on January 5 that the Kuwaiti embassy in Australia rejected his request. In an email sent on the same day, he said he signed a UNHCR resettlement registration application form that the UNHCR-Port Moresby office was presently processing for possible resettlement in a third country, after the Kuwaiti embassy refused to issue him with a new residency permit.

Sisalem described the embassy's decision as "good news" as he claimed he was persecuted for 10 years when he lived in the Middle Eastern country. He said the ill treatment he was subjected to because of his nationality as a Palestinian compelled him to flee in November 2000 for Indonesia and eventually PNG.

"I'm quite glad to know about the Kuwaiti embassy's response. It was good news for me that the Kuwait government refused me returning to Kuwait, the country where I was persecuted for almost 10 years, and that is why I left Kuwait seeking asylum," said Sisalem.

Siffointe speaking in January after informing Sisalem of his unsuccessful application said the asylum seeker as a Palestinian was a refugee, because he fell within a special category under the refugee convention. He said Sisalem had two resettlement options to consider with the UNHCR's help. These include resettlement in PNG or a third country.

But Sisalem has refused to be resettled in PNG saying he did not intend to return to the South Pacific country but was forced by Australian immigration officials to be flown to Manus Island.

But Sisalem saw a light at the end of the tunnel in his quest to find a country he could call home, with the New Zealand government's announcement in January that it will take 20 asylum seekers from a group of more than 280 mainly Afghan illegal immigrants detained on Nauru.

He said his signing of a UNHCR resettlement registration application form showed the UNHCR's recognition of him as a refugee.

"I hope that a country like New Zealand would accept me. I was recognised by the UNHCR as a refugee and was granted refugee status so I'm waiting for my resettlement in a third safe country, though I'm still suffering in this solitary detention (in Manus)."

In an attempt to fast track the process, he has sent details of his case to New Zealand and Canadian immigration authorities and said both institutions had responded favourably and were willing to help him resettle in their respective countries though under the auspices of the UNHCR.

Sisalem's predicament came under the microscope last month when different sections of the Australian media estimated the total cost of housing him on Manus Island from July to December last year to be between A$1.3 million and A$4 million at the expense of the Australian taxpayers.

However, Australian Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone defended the hefty expenditure saying the Lombrum facility had to stay open as it sent a strong signal to human smugglers that they should not resume their trade. She said the money was used to fund a number of low cost projects that would benefit the operation of the processing centre and the local community on Manus Island.

Government officers in the Manus provincial capital Lorengau were not able to name projects in the province that were specifically funded by Australian money sourced from the Lombrum processing centre.

Sisalem, while avoiding debate on cost associated with his prolonged stay, in an email message sent on February 10 accused the Australian government of spending public money to detain him illegally and denying him his humanitarian and asylum seeker's rights. A court case expected to start this month in Australia would determine whether Sisalem should have had his claim for asylum considered by Australia. That might be Sisalem's last hope to have his application considered by the Australian government.