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Manus detainees plead for assisted suicide in PM letter

A disturbing letter, signed by 600 of the 900 Manus Island detainees, has asked Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton to kill them.

The letter, published by human rights lawyer Julian Burnside on his website on Monday, describes the hopelessness Manus Island detainees feel about their situation and outlines possible avenues of mass killing for the Australian government.

The letter was photographed by Vice Magazine and verified by a journalist who contacted its author, known as ‘Mahmud’.

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“Hello Dear Mr Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton,” writes Mahmud.

“As the refugees and asylum seekers trapped in Manus Island detention we wold (sic) like to request you something different this time.

“We would like to give you some recommendations to stop the waste of this huge amount of money ruining Australian’s reputation and to keep the Australian boarders (sic) safe forever.

Julian Burnside

Julian Burnside wrote that MPs would be hypocritical to wish their electorate a ‘Merry Christmas’ this year. Photo: AAP

“1. A navy ship that can put us all on board and dump us all in the ocean. (HMAS – Her Majesty’s Australian Ship – is always available).

“2. A gas chamber (DECMIL – government and defence contractor – will do it with a new contract).

“3. Injection of a poison. (IHMS – International Health and Medical Services – will help for this).

“This is not a joke or a satire and please take it serious.

“We are dying in Manus gradually, every single day we are literarly (sic) tortured and traumatized and there is no safe country to offer us protection as DIBP (Department of Immigration and Border Protection) says.

“Best regards, Merry Christmas in advance, Manus refugees and asylum seekers.”

Photographs of the letter show hundreds of detainee signatures.

In an interview with Vice over social media, Mahmud said the situation on the island had worsened recently.

“Recently immigration is telling us there is no country that will accept us on this planet,” he said.

“They are literally torturing and traumatizing us with their system (which is a planned proper system to break us down).

“So when we found out they will keep doing this and we will be experiencing gradual death for the rest of our lives in here why not ask them to execute us instead?”

To organise the signatures, Mahmud said he smuggled the letter between the centre’s different compounds.

He said some of the men who signed the letter wanted to be the first to die if the government granted their request.

In recent months, Australia’s immigration policies have come under fire from all corners of the globe, including a scathing New York Times editorial and criticism from UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

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