Transcript

HAYDEN COOPER, PRESENTER: The death of an asylum seeker and the bashing of two more by police have inflamed tensions at Australia's offshore detention centre on Manus Island.

The small community on the island is struggling to deal with the ongoing presence and behaviour of detainees, who were released from detention after a court found they were being held illegally. They - and residents on Manus Island - fear there will be more violence, while the asylum seekers wait for the chance to be resettled in the United States.

Our Papua New Guinea correspondent, Eric Tlozek, went to Manus Island to file this report.

ERIC TLOZEK, REPORTER: Manus Province is Papua New Guinea's most isolated: a collection of small, sun-drenched islands close to the equator.

Its 60,000 inhabitants mostly live by the water. Every day, many come to the biggest island, Manus Island, where they can sell their catch or their produce at the market in the town of Lorengau.

While the locals are coming by boat, the men from Australia's detention centre on Manus are making the half-hour bus journey to town to go shopping. They're new customers for Lorengau's new market, built with Australian funds.

The detainees' relations with local people are generally friendly, but there's rising tension because no-one expected these men to be in the community, or to still be on Manus after 3.5 years.

AMIR TAGHINIA, IRANIAN REFUGEE: We are all concerned of our safety. And I can tell you: during the past two to three nights, we couldn't properly sleep because of the things that has happened.

ERIC TLOZEK: Recent events on Manus have left refugees living in fear. First came the death on Christmas Eve, after many pleas for medical treatment, of Sudanese refugee Faisal Ishak Ahmed.

SUDANESE REFUGEE: Six months. Six months, seeking (inaudible).

ERIC TLOZEK: Then came the bashing of two Iranian asylum seekers by PNG Police on New Year's Eve.

MEHDI BOHLOULI, IRANIAN ASYLUM SEEKER (translation): In the police station, I was begging them to help us and not beat us up. And they were saying, "No. You're not our brothers, so we're not going to help you." So they were just laughing and beating us up.

ERIC TLOZEK: The experience has left both men terrified.

MEHDI BOHLOULI (translation): They'd put the end of the gun in my forehead, like they wanted to hit my head. And they started laughing and making fun of us.

MOHAMMAD, IRANIAN ASYLUM SEEKER (translation): I was beaten up so badly with sticks and batons and a gun in my head and back. And I was so dizzy, I couldn't feel anything.

ERIC TLOZEK: The asylum seekers believe officers were taking revenge, because the detainees resisted a police search of the detention centre several weeks ago.

Police on Manus Island deny this. They say the men were arrested for being drunk in public.

DAVID YAPU, POLICE COMMISSIONER: They were walking on the public road and they were causing nuisance to the motorists travelling along that road, and also the people: people walking on the road.

ERIC TLOZEK: The Manus Island Police Commander has not ordered any investigation into how the men were injured, saying they were probably hurt while resisting arrest.

DAVID YAPU: It could have happened during the struggle: struggle between the police and the two refugees.

If they would have cooperated and got into the police vehicle, I think, you know, that kind of injuries could have not been sustained by the two refugees.

ERIC TLOZEK: Police on Manus Island say they're dealing with an increasing number of incidents involving men from the detention centre.

DAVID YAPU: We have dealt with them for consumption of home brew. We have dealt with them for marijuana drugs and other straight offences that the refugees come to be involved, especially with the local youths within the town.

(Footage of David Yapu and Ronny Knight shaking hands)

DAVID YAPU (To Ronny Knight): Good afternoon, sir. Pleased to meet you.

ERIC TLOZEK: It's a concern shared by many people on Manus Island - especially the local Member of Parliament, Ronny Knight.

RONNY KNIGHT, MANUS ISLAND MP: I realise that you don't want them in Australia. And from the attitudes that they have on the streets in Manus, I can realise why you don't want them in Australia.

Well, if you don't want them in Australia, you know, the local people now don't want them here anymore. So something has to be done.

(Footage of Ronny Knight driving through Lorengau at night)

ERIC TLOZEK: Mr Knight says detainees from the centre are taking to the streets of Lorengau after dark, looking for drugs, alcohol and women.

RONNY KNIGHT: On the right here, there's a bunch of asylum seekers here.

ERIC TLOZEK: He says the men are becoming involved in crime and local people are increasingly angry at their behaviour.

RONNY KNIGHT: I know for a fact that it's a powder keg that's about to be lit. And if something is not done soon, there will be repercussions and you will see more of these incidents growing and more asylum seekers being assaulted by locals.

And you know, there's also the locals that are assaulted by asylum seekers too. That's another story in itself.

Well, I can foresee more deaths. And the deaths that I see are going to be at the hands of locals.

These people actually harass young girls and chase them all the way into their father's areas - and a lot of these incidents of people being beaten up is because of that.

You know, if they keep doing it, eventually somebody's going to go a bit too far on them as well and somebody's going to get killed and it's going to be another issue again.

ERIC TLOZEK: The detention centre on Manus Island is slated for closure, but the PNG Government needs to clear the detainees out first.

Refugees have been told United States officials will visit next month to start working out which men could be resettled in the US.

The men who've been found to be refugees have been told, if they want to be considered for resettlement in the United States, they need to move out of the detention centre and to a facility closer to this town.

Most don't want to leave detention. They believe, if the Papua New Guinea and Australian governments can say the centre's being closed, they can keep the men on Manus Island for as long as they like.

This has left the refugees with little to do but wait and hold out against demands for them to move. They're increasingly sceptical about the US deal and many have fading hopes of leaving Manus Island.

AMIR TAGHINIA: I am so hopeless and helpless that I do not really think we're going to get off this island.

And I think the US deal is just to keep people quiet for a while, whether it's the Australian people or the refugees.

ERIC TLOZEK: Life on Manus Island might look largely unchanged, but the presence of the detainees is having an undeniable effect on this community.

RONNY KNIGHT: We could go right now to the middle of the highway in Manus and you will see asylum seekers shacked up with local girls in the local villages up there.

We believe there's about - I think it's four children that have been born to asylum seekers now. And there's another 10 or so women that are pregnant.

And they're going to go tomorrow; any time. And what's going to happen to the women and children that they leave behind?

ERIC TLOZEK: The longer the detainees stay, the more things will change for the people of Manus - and there's increasing resentment about that.

HAYDEN COOPER: Eric Tlozek reporting there from Manus Island.