ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Australia has said it bears no responsibility for the medical care of a critically ill Kurdish refugee who has remained in Papua New Guinea (PNG) for more than a decade, telling Rudaw that the PNG government has been solely responsible for refugees left in the country since the end of a bilateral processing agreement in 2021.
Hatam Yekta, a 36-year-old Kurdish man from Rojhelat (western Iran), has been stranded in PNG since 2013 after arriving in Australia by boat to seek asylum. He was transferred by Australian authorities to the offshore detention center on Manus Island under Australia's regional processing policy.
His family and refugee advocates say his physical and mental health has deteriorated dramatically during his years in detention and that his life is now at risk.
In response to questions from Rudaw about why Yekta's case has remained unresolved for 13 years and what Australia is doing to help him, a spokesperson for Australia's Department of Home Affairs said responsibility now lies entirely with PNG.
"The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government is responsible for the management of individuals remaining in PNG who were formerly under regional processing arrangements," the spokesperson said.
"The Australian Government does not have any role in the ongoing management for individuals remaining in PNG."
The department also confirmed that Australia and PNG formally ended their regional processing association through the Regional Resettlement Arrangement on December 31, 2021.
"On 1 January 2022, the PNG Government assumed full and independent management of individuals remaining in PNG," the official added.
However, refugee advocates argue Australia continues to bear responsibility for people it transferred offshore.
The Refugee Action Coalition says Yekta is one of only 12 refugees still living in PNG more than a decade after being sent there under Australia's offshore processing system. The organization says he suffers from severe psychological trauma linked to his treatment on Manus Island.
“Hatam’s condition is an appalling example of the plight of the 10 or 12 refugees who are suffering serious mental health problems as a result of their mistreatment in Manus Island detention,” the Coalition said in a report on Tuesday.
“It is urgent that the Labor government acts to medevac Hatam to Australia,” the report cited the Coalition's spokesperson Ian Rintoul as saying, adding that “It is simply unconscionable that the government would deny Hatam the medical and mental health care he needs.
“Labor has a particular responsibility, as the government that sent Hatam and other refugees to Manus Island in 2013, and the government that introduced the Medevac legislation, to act now.”
Since 2019, Yekta's family has sought to have him transferred to Australia under the former Medevac legislation, which allowed doctors to recommend medical transfers for seriously ill refugees held offshore. But the law was repealed later that year by the government of then-prime minister Scott Morrison before Yekta's planned transfer could proceed.
Medical transfers are now subject to the discretion of Australia's minister for home affairs.
An Australian Senate committee is currently examining the historical operation of Australia's offshore detention system, including the treatment of refugees held in processing centers outside the country.
Yekta is not the only Kurdish refugee to have been detained on Manus Island. Kurdish writer Behrouz Boochani and musician Farhad Bandesh were also held there for years before being released, while advocates say hundreds of asylum seekers remain in limbo in Papua New Guinea, Nauru, and Australia.
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