Politics

Greens Senator Nick McKim Threatened With Deportation From PNG After Visiting Manus Island

McKim says his passport was confiscated after he asked to visit Australia's offshore detention centres.

by Sam Langford  18 July 2019
nick mckim

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Greens Senator Nick McKim says he has been threatened with a deportation notice by the Papua New Guinean government, after attempting to visit Australia’s offshore detention facilities on Manus Island.

McKim, who has visited Manus Island previously to observe and report on conditions in Australia’s offshore detention system, told Junkee he requested permission to enter the East Lorengau refugee transit centre on Manus earlier today.

Related
Australia’s Offshore Detention Regime Is Crumbling Before Our Eyes.

“There were a number of guards and one official from the PNG Immigration Department, who wanted to look at my passport,” McKim said. “When he got my passport he kind of started shouting at me, saying ‘you’ve been over here before, misreporting what happened on Manus in the past.'”

McKim told Junkee he agreed to leave the facility, but that the official refused to return his passport. “I said I’d leave, but not until I got my passport, and he refused to give it back,” he said.

“I sat down on the side of the road and said I’d wait for my passport — he went away, and after about 20 minutes he came back and gave me my passport and said ‘you have to leave Manus Island immediately’. I said ‘I’m not going to do that.'”

McKim’s account of the situation is backed up by a tweet posted this morning by Behrouz Boochani, a journalist and refugee currently imprisoned on Manus Island.

“Immigration officer is very angry at him because of his reporting from Manus island [sic],” Boochani wrote. “It is not the first time that people have been stopped from visiting Manus or deported. Two weeks ago my translator Omid Tofighian was deported from Port Moresby. Before the election an Australian comedian Dan was deported too and many over past six years.”

McKim has since tweeted that his passport has been returned to him, but added that “police and immigration then stopped me on the street and I’ve been informed that a deportation notice will be issued to me later today”.

“When I was walking back to my hotel a Toyota land cruiser with one immigration official and several heavily armed police officers pulled up next to me,” McKim told Junkee. “They asked for my passport, then said ‘okay, you need to get in the car’. I said ‘am I under arrest?’, they said no, so I left.”

McKim has yet to receive the promised deportation notice, and said that the reason for threatening deportation was not clear to him. “I was granted a 12 month multiple entry visa by the PNG government and am here legally,” McKim wrote on Twitter.

“Every Kina spent here on refugees has been authorised by the Australian parliament, and there should be accountability on how it is spent. That accountablilty [sic] and truth telling is my job.”

“I have always treated police, immigration and all PNG people with respect, and obeyed their laws. Offshore detention is not of their making, and has been very difficult for many of them.”

We’ve reached out to the Australian Department of Home Affairs and the Papua New Guinean Immigration and Citizenship Authority for further information, and we’ll update this post if they respond.