One of Australia’s notorious refugee camps has become an economic crutch for Papua New Guinea island
Protesters in Sydney in November call on the ruling coalition government to bring back 600 refugees from an Australian detention center in Papua New Guinea.
LORENGAU, Papua New Guinea — Atop a hillock on the island of Manus, behind roadblocks and steel gates, sits one of the notorious and widely condemned camps set up to keep refugees out of Australia. People from across Asia and parts of Africa, sent here by Australian authorities against their will, have been murdered, have killed themselves or have died here as a result of poor-to-nonexistent health care.
Although more than 500 men live here now, the camp’s days may be numbered. The United States has resettled 85 Manus refugees since September and is going to take more. Yet as part of a system of camps that Amnesty International recently described as one of “calculated neglect and cruelty,” it is going to be missed by the people who live in the local community.
Shuttering the camp could deal a severe blow to the economy.
Ken Kuso, a hotel owner in Lorengau, the capital of Manus, remembers the day he first heard the camp would open.
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