Remembering Faysal

BY LANI OATAWAY

Around 200 people gathered in Hyde Park on Friday 30 December for a vigil grieving the loss of a refugee held on Manus Island.

27-year-old Faysal Ishak Ahmed was medically evacuated from the detention centre to Brisbane Hospital on Christmas Eve, where he died not long after.

For six months Mr Ahmed visited the International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) clinic daily, reporting constant headaches and heart problems. But the day before Mr Ahmed was evacuated, the IHMS doctor said to him, “You are not sick… do not come to us again.”

Action group Grandmothers Against Detention of Refugee Children attended the vigil wearing purple t-shirts, holding banners and placards in purple lettering reading, ‘Close the camps!’ and ‘Bring them here.’

Many in the crowd brandished flags and boards with messages such as ‘Dutton Blood on Your Hands,’ ‘Justice for Faysal’ and ‘Seeking asylum is not a crime: close the camps now!’

The Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) organised six speakers for the vigil, including community leaders, politicians and action group leaders.

After reading out Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s response to Mr Ahmed’s death, RAC MC for the event, Cath Bartley, led the crowd in a chant of “Dutton Turnbull shame on you! Close Manus Island, Close Nauru.”

Sydney Sudanese community leader, Abdalla Khalil Mohammad, spoke of the conditions in Sudan that cause people to flee the country in search of safety. Mr Ahmed fled Sudan seeking protection, only to be detained on Manus Island for over three years.

Pastor of Gosford Anglican Church, Father Rod Bower, criticised the Turnbull Government’s border policy and the Opposition for their lack of action.

“Australian people are being told a lie, we are being told that everything necessary is being done. Faysal was told that, and now he is dead. And with Faysal’s death, something within us has died aswell,” he said.

“Faysel died slowly over 6 months. He died from lies, neglect and the abuse of power. But that’s not what his death certificate will say.”

Doctors for Refugees member, Dr Barri Phatarfod, condemned the medical attention Mr Ahmed was given, identifying it as well below Australian hospital standards.

A refugee on Manus Island, Behrouz Boochani, echoes this disgust at the IHMS treatment process. A friend of Mr Ahmed, Mr Boochani said in a statement, “Many times Faysal collapsed and all of us here knew that he was seriously sick for more than 6 months.

“More than 60 people wrote a letter to IHMS and explained to them how Faysal is sick and has constant headache and heart problem but they did not care.

“IHMS is obviously a criminal medical system, as criminal as the Australian immigration. This system has forgotten all its values and dignity that a health provider has to be obliged to,” he said.

Another speaker at the vigil, Board member of the National Justice Project, George Newhouse, called for the Government to be held accountable for their actions. He demanded a Royal Commission into Mr Ahmed’s death, and a critical review of the health systems in Australia’s detention centres.

However, it took two years for an inquest into the death of Manus Island refugee Hamid Khazaei in 2014 to be held, leaving small hope for the Government to take action quickly.

The Solidarity Choir handed out cut up print outs of the national anthem, rewritten to complement the occasion. They sang, “If in a boat, you’ve crossed the seas, we’ve got no plains to share. Just Manus Island or Nauru, and bitter black despair.”

The RAC have organised several vigils across the country, including in Brisbane, Newcastle and Melbourne in the past week.