Some forced to leave centre after days without necessities

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SOME of the asylum seekers have been forced to move from the regional processing centre to the new camp at East Lorengau after being deprived of food, water and electricity for a week.
Manus provincial police commander Inspector David Yapu could not give the exact figure but Immigrations officials said  12 had elected to move away from the remaining 500-plus.
An immigration officer, requesting anonymity, said: “They are slowly moving out and we are providing transport for them.
“They have no excuse to stay back. There is food, water and electricity at the new camps.”
Meanwhile, Sudanese asylum seeker Aziz Adam said some had moved out “but the rest of us are still here”.
“We will not move out that easily. Going without food and water is nothing new to us,” Adam said.
“In fact, we had run away from our place that had no food and water. We will survive as long as we have oxygen.”
Adam said police, soldiers and immigration officers had stopped locals from bringing food to them.
“Also, the military officers had prevented a German missionary couple from bringing food to us,” he said. “We collected water in containers from the rain and have also dug a well and are fetching water from it.
“But the water from the well is dirty.
“Some of our friends have fallen ill due to lack of water and poor sanitation. A health inspector from the provincial health authority visited us. He did some medical checks on our sick friends and left.”