Refugee Activists Are Holding A Vigil Outside Peter Dutton’s Office Today
Remembering Faysal Ishak Ahmed, who died after collapsing on Manus Island last week.
Refugee activists will gather outside the Queensland electoral offices of Immigration Minister Peter Dutton this afternoon to hold a vigil for Faysal Ishak Ahmed, the 27-year-old Sudanese refugee who died after suffering a fall and a seizure following months of ill-health in detention on Manus Island.
Ahmed had been complaining of chest pain, high blood pressure, breathing problems and “a problem at the back of my head” for six months prior to his collapse last Thursday. According to his friends on Manus Island, his repeated requests for medical assistance were ignored by detention centre staff. He visited the centre’s medical clinic the week of his death, but was reportedly accused of faking his illness and told not to come back.
A statement from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection said that it was “not aware of any suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.”
The Queensland vigil will take place from 12:30pm today outside Dutton’s offices in Strathpine, Morton Bay (more information here). One of the organisers, Mark Gillespie of the Refugee Action Collective, told Sky News that “Faysal was not just a number or a statistic…he was someone’s son, brother and friend. He was 27 years old and had his whole life before him.”
Around 900 men are still trapped on Manus Island, despite the prison having been ruled unconstitutional by Papua New Guinea’s supreme court.