CANBERRA, Australia, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Australia is holding more than 1,000 asylum seekers in a deplorable processing center in Papua New Guinea, Amnesty International said in a report.
The asylum seekers are being held in cramped living conditions and are being denied sufficient water and medical help, the report alleged.
The compound offers no protection from the sun and oppressive heat, and some detainees are physically and verbally abused, the report said.
Many of the asylum seekers fled Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, Darfur and Pakistan, and risked their lives in order to get to Australia.
"This system of harsh conditions and humiliating treatment is a deliberate effort to pressure people to return to the desperate situations they have fled from," Amnesty International Australia's National Director Claire Mallinson said.
The report is based on a recent visit to Manus Island.
Only 55 of the asylum seekers have been able to start a claim for refugee status, Amnesty International said.
"I have lived in war zones, with bombs and explosions. I have never experienced what I am experiencing here with the uncertainty we face. If we had died in the ocean that would have been better," a 43-year-old Iraqi said.
Amnesty International is calling on the Australian government to end offshore processing and detention of asylum seekers.
Until the facility is closed, Amnesty International said the government must make efforts to improve it.
