Skip to content

Manus Island: Asylum seeker found dead in Australia-run centre

Reuters Asylum-seekers look through a fence at the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New GuineaReuters
Library photo of asylum-seekers at the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea

An asylum seeker who was being held at the Australian-run detention centre on Manus Island has been found dead.

Police say the man's body was found near the East Lorengau refugee transit centre on Monday morning.

Australia's Immigration and Border Protection department said Papua New Guinean (PNG) authorities are investigating the death.

PNG police said the man, who is from Iran, took his own life, though reports say other residents contested that.

The man's name has not been released.

Map of Manus Island
Activists have condemned living conditions in the camps in PNG and Nauru

Asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat are detained at the Manus Island centre and on the nation of Nauru as part of the government's long-standing policy.

Australia agreed to close the Manus Island centre last year after a PNG court ruled that detaining asylum seekers and refugees there was unconstitutional.

Rights groups say conditions in the PNG and Nauru camps are inadequate with poor hygiene, cramped conditions, unrelenting heat and a lack of facilities.

The controversial centre is due to close by 31 October.