Coronial Inquest into Faysal Ishak Ahmed’s death reignites calls to end offshore detention
The Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Albanese Government to end the offshore detention regime that has taken the lives of at least fourteen people and the freedom of thousands, and to evacuate all those who are still offshore to Australia, as the coronial inquest into the death of Faysal Ishak Ahmed begins today.
Faysal Ishak Ahmed, a 27-year-old Sudanese man, was detained by the Australian Government on Manus Island for three years. In 2016, Faysal repeatedly asked for medical attention before he eventually collapsed and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Only then was he evacuated to Australia, where he passed away in a Brisbane hospital.
The Queensland State Coroner will investigate whether the cause of Faysal’s collapse should have been identified earlier and whether his collapse could have been prevented. The investigation follows previous coronial inquests into the deaths of Omid Masoumali and Hamid Khazaei, both of which found deficiencies in the care provided to people offshore by the Australian Government.
Eight years after Faysal’s death, dozens of people, who were transferred by the Australian Government in 2013, remain trapped in Papua New Guinea. Over fifty people have recently been sent to Nauru without any pathway to permanent resettlement.
The Inquest will be heard in the Coroner's Court of Queensland on 18 and 19 March. The National Justice Project are representing Faysal's family.
Quotes attributed to Farhad Bandesh, an activist and artist who was detained on Manus Island:
“I was detained with Faysal for years on Manus Island – he was a gentle young man who would still be alive if he had been treated with the respect and care we deserve as human beings. But the camps on Manus and Nauru were designed to dehumanise us and to strip our lives of all hope and meaning. Every single person detained on Manus and Nauru is a victim of these atrocities and deserves justice, as Faysal does.”
Quotes attributed to Josephine Langbien, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre:
"The Australian Government designed offshore detention centres to punish people seeking safety in Australia. We now have a decade of evidence from survivors of those centres, describing the humiliation, medical neglect, violence and lawlessness they endured. And yet, the Australian Government is still subjecting people to this system today.
“Faysal’s family deserve to know the truth about how the Australian Government failed him. The thousands of people like Faysal who were detained offshore deserve justice. This includes the 1,100 people who were evacuated to Australia yet remain in limbo here, as well as the approximately 100 people currently in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Offshore processing provides a blueprint for dehumanisation that Australia has exported throughout the world – it must be shut down and never reopened.”
Media Contact:
Thomas Feng
Human Rights Law Centre
0431 285 275
thomas.feng@hrlc.org.au