On 17 February, a 23-year-old Iranian man was killed during clashes at an Australian
detention centre housing asylum seekers on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
His name was Reza Barati and according to a report by Papua New Guinea police, he died
as a result of multiple head injuries, possibly caused by a heavy object.
Reza arrived in Australia on the 24th July 2013, just five days after the country's then
prime minister Kevin Rudd announced that all new asylum seekers arriving by boat would
be sent to the Manus Island detention centre to have their asylum applications processed
there - and if successful, later be settled in Papua New Guinea.
This was followed shortly after by an announcement that asylum seekers could also be sent to
the island country of Nauru for processing and possible settlement.
In both cases Rudd made it clear that these asylum seekers would have no chance of ever
being settled in Australia.
No matter where people smugglers try to land asylum seekers by boat in Australia, they
will not be settled in Australia.
This is our core principle, this is our core unshakeable position.
More than 60 other people were injured at the centre on Manus Island when protests escalated
into violence.
Several detainees allege they were set upon with makeshift weapons by both Papua New Guinea
police who were present on the scene, as well as local employees of the British firm G4S,
which is responsible for security at the centre.
One man was even shot in the backside although Papua New Guinea police, who were the only
guards armed there, claim they only fired warning shots over the heads of rioters.
An investigation into the incident is now being carried out by Australia and will look
at possible misconduct by the G4S workers.
At least two first-hand accounts from locals employed by G4S have emerged, though it is
not clear if these accounts have come from the same person.
Both allege that G4S allowed Papua New Guinea police and local civilians to enter the centre
compound, while one alleges that civilians attacked asylum seekers and that G4S guards
beat detainees with belts.
The other account also says that the Papua New Guinea police were accompanied by dogs
and that asylum seekers who were not involved in the protests may even have been pulled
from their beds and beaten, thought it is not clear by who.
A spokesman for G4S has said the company is unable to confirm any individual witness statements
at this time, and that all statements they've received have been passed on to the Australian
team investigating the incident.
Papua New Guinea's deputy police commissioner has now also cleared both Papua New Guinea
police, and locals, of responsibility for the death of Reza Barati.
Many Australians are feeling outraged.
Not only at the incident itself, but also at the government's handling of it ever since.
The Australian immigration minister Scott Robinson is now facing calls for him to step
down after initially saying that events had largely taken place outside the centre's perimeter,
which later turned out not to be true.
If people choose to remove themselves from that centre then they're obviously putting
themselves at a place of much greater risk, and in an environment like that where there
is violent behaviour on the part of those who are breaching the perimeter fence and
going out of the centre, then this is a disorderly environment, in which there is always great
risk."
The country's current Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has defended Morrison's handling of
the incident, saying: "You don't want a wimp running border protection.
You want someone who is strong, who is decent."
But that wasn't before Australia's biggest trading partner China had thrown in its two
cents.
Speaking on the 21st February the Chinese vice-minister of foreign affairs Li Baodong
said he was very concerned about the "very important issue" of the treatment of refugees
and asylum seekers, especially children, who arrive in Australia by boat.
And said he had asked Australia if those refugees would be illegally repatriated to other countries.
So where did it all go wrong?
For the last few years, Australia has been facing growing criticism for the way it deals
with refugees and asylum seekers, in particular those who arrive in the country by boat.
These people are officially defined as "irregular maritime arrivals" or IMAs, although are often
referred to as "boat people".
Between 2011 and 2012, IMAs overtook the number of non-IMAs for the first time, with 7,379
asylum seekers arriving by boat compared with the 7,036 arriving by air.
In the first seven months of 2013 alone however, the number of IMAs arriving in Australia had
already reached 15,000.
Arriving by boat is a much more dangerous option for asylum seekers and unsurprisingly
these people tend to come from poorer and more troubled countries than the asylum seekers
arriving by air.
Between 2011 and 2012 the majority came from Afghanistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
The boats are often crowded and unsafe, and accidents common but many asylum seekers pay
human traffickers thousands of dollars for the "privilege" of becoming so-called "boat
people".
According to figures from the Australian Crime Commission, between October 2001 and June
2012 nearly 1,000 asylum seekers died at sea while trying to reach Australia, and according
to news reports hundreds more may have died since then.
Australia says it's had enough of people smugglers exploiting asylum seekers, as well as Australian
crews having to risk their own lives by trying to save the many asylum seekers who inevitably
end up in Australian waters.
People smugglers are engaged in the world's most evil trade and they should all rot in
jail because they represent the absolute scum of the earth.
And its policy of sending all new boat arrivals to either Manus Island or Nauru is not the
only way Australia's been getting tough on asylum seekers arriving by sea.
This next bit took us a while to get our heads around.
But in May 2013, Australia became the first country in the world to remove itself from
its own migration zone.
Essentially this was because before this, Australia's mainland was considered inside
its migration zone and so any non-citizens, including asylum seekers, who arrived on the
mainland would have to apply for a visa in order to legally enter and remain.
By doing away with this, Australia took away asylum seekers' ability to apply for a visa
if they reached the mainland and so made it legal for them to instead be taken to offshore
locations.
And in December 2013, the immigration minister Scott Morrison issued a new directive that
refugees who had arrived in Australia by boat should be given the lowest priority when it
comes to allowing their families to join them in the country - even when these refugees
have been living in Australia on a permanent visa for several years.
Then, earlier this month Australian authorities published a graphic novel online that depicted
asylum seekers in distress in an offshore detention centre.
It seemed to be Australia's way of saying: Don't try and come to our country because
if you do, we'll treat you badly.
This is despite the fact that figures from the Australian government itself show that
between 70 and 97% of asylum seekers arriving by boat are found to be true refugees, i.e.
people needing protection.
And just this week it was revealed that the current government led by Prime Minister Tony
Abbott has spent 2.5 million Australian dollars on lifeboats to send asylum seekers intercepted
at sea back to Indonesia from where their vessels originally departed.
And these $200,000 a piece lifeboats are understood to be used only once.
Also this week it emerged that two dozen asylum seekers have been stranded in Indonesia after
the Australian authorities allegedly blew up the wooden vessel they were travelling
in before sending them back in one of these lifeboats.
But for those people who do manage to reach Australia by boat, or a territory off the
mainland such as Christmas Island, their problems don't end there...
Upon arrival, asylum seekers arriving by boat are sent to Christmas Island while their reasons
for attempting to enter Australia are identified.
Previously, these people would then have been released into the community on bridging visas
while their asylum claims were assessed, or sent to an immigration detention centre, either
on the mainland or offshore, for processing.
Now, of course, the idea is that everyone will be transferred to centres on either Manus
Island or Nauru, but some 2,000 people who arrived by boat last summer have ended up
stuck at Christmas Island in indefinite detention after these facilities weren't ready to take
them.
In January of this year nine of these people stitched their lips together with dental floss
as part of a hunger strike involving as many as 78 detainees, including some being held
in a family compound.
Now, protests and riots are relatively common at Australia's immigration facilities where
living conditions are tough and asylum seekers often feel stuck in a state of limbo and uncertainty.
And conditions in the Manus Island and Nauru centres are made worse by of the remoteness
of these locations.
The United Nations has previously called conditions at Nauru "unbearable", and several incidents
of self-harming and attempted suicide have been reported by the Refugee Action Coalition
campaign group.
Back in July 2013 a full-scale riot broke out at the centre over the slow processing
of asylum claims.
Several buildings were set on fire, at least 15 guards were left injured, including a local
police officer who was stabbed, and more than half of all detainees were reported to have
escaped.
That same month a UN report on the Manus Island centre concluded that conditions there were
harsh, processing was slow, and detainees were growing despondent.
The report detailed poor hygiene, restricted freedom of movement and cramped living quarters,
which included the use of canvas tents in hot weather.
And the month before that the Australian government has been forced to remove all children and
their parents from the centre after the UN said their detention there should be "terminated
as a matter of priority".
Just this week however, it was reported that unaccompanied minors had begun to be transferred
from Christmas Island to Nauru.
But the current government is feeling pretty proud about its progress on asylum seekers
so far.
Earlier this month the Prime Minister Tony Abbott released a YouTube video called "Delivering
on our promises" in which he said:
We've also made big progress in border protection.
Not a single illegal boat has arrived since mid-December.
January was the first full month since early 2009 that has gone without the arrival of
a single illegal boat.
The people smugglers are finally getting the message that this country is under new management.
It's been a remarkable turnaround in only a few months - our policies are working and
progress is being made.
Interestingly, Mr Abbott's YouTube channel was temporarily suspended following the release
of this video after users complained that it contained "deceptive content".
However, Google, who own YouTube, later claimed the suspension was a mistake.
But despite all its noise about "boat people", UN figures reveal that in 2012 Australia was
only home to 3% of the world's asylum seekers, and had one of the lowest rates of refugees
in the industrialised world.
Well that's our two cents but we want to know what you have to say about this.
So as always, you can let us know your thoughts in the comments below and we'll see you again
next time.