Immigration authority offers to provide assistance

THE PNG Immigration and Citizenship Authority Services (PNGICSA) will work with relevant stakeholders to provide assistance to any legal inquiry concerning the death of an asylum seeker on Manus.
Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Rimbink Pato confirmed that when acknowledging the death of Iranian refugee Hamed Shamshiripou on Manus on Monday.
According to police on Manus, Shamshiripou’s body was found by schoolchildren hanging from a branch of a tree near East Lorengau Elementary in Lorengau town on Monday at 9am.
Police said they did not suspect foul play but investigations were being carried out.
They said Shamshiripou tried to commit suicide before but was prevented.
Manus police commander Senior Inspector David Yapu said after receiving the report of alleged suicide, police and PNGICSA officials attended to the scene and retrieved the body. He said last year, Shamshiripou tried to commit suicide in a police cell after he was arrested by police but was prevented by police on duty.
Yapu said there was no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death but police were still investigating the matter.
Pato  expressed sympathy to Shamshiripou’s friends and family.
He said Shamshiripou had been transferred to PNG under the regional resettlement arrangement with Australia in 2013 and had been detained under PNG law to be a
refugee last year and had been residing at the East Lorengau Transit Centre.
He noted that the refugee’s family had been contacted and the immigration authority, with assistance from the Australian government, would continue to work with relevant PNG and overseas stakeholders to provide assistance to any legal inquiry concerning the circumstances surrounding the death.