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Manus Island protest escalates, up to 700 detainees on hunger strike

As many as 700 detainees on Manus Island have joined a hunger strike that doctors say the detention centre will be ill-equipped to manage amid fears that lives could be lost. Two-thirds of the population of the centre is now refusing food as detainees grow increasingly desperate to avoid the federal government's plan to resettle them in Papua New Guinea. The men are refusing to eat, and some are also refusing water. They say they fear for their lives if they are moved from the centre to temporary accommodation on the outskirts of Lorengau, the major town on the island.

Doctors for Refugees convenor and Sydney-based general practitioner Barri Phatarfod said her "immediate concern" was that there would be deaths among the detainees as a result of the hunger strike.

"My overriding concern is how desperate people must be to feel that death is a better alternative than the situation they're in now," she said.

Ms Phatarfod said Manus Island did not have the infrastructure to cope with a 700 person hunger strike.

"They don't have the capacity to handle a hunger strike of even one tenth of that size," she said.

"They have very little in the way of intravenous fluids. They have very little in the way of staff that are on all the time and they also don't have a lot in the way of pathology to test people's electrolytes to see whether they have kidney failure."

Ms Phatarfod said the group of Australian doctors held particular concern for a man who already lost 20 kilograms on 78 days hunger strike.

"He's already experiencing an element of organ failure and there are concerns that he may not survive," she said.

"He's lost a lot of weight very rapidly and is severely dehydrated. He really should be evacuated to Australia."

The action escalated at the weekend after hardline comments made by the new Immigration Minister Peter Dutton who said on Friday the Manus Island detainees would "never arrive in Australia".

The protest has been building over the past week with participants shouting "Freedom" and whistling and chanting.

Late last week refugee advocates in contact with detainees estimated the protest involved more than half the 1035 detainees.

On Sunday they said the figure had grown to as many as 700.

Up to 14 people have sewn their lips together.

There has been no running water in the centre for several days with detainees being given bottled water to drink, wash with and to use to flush the toilets.

People participating in the protest who have fainted have been intravenously rehydrated in the medical centre and sent back to their compound.

The medical centre is housed in the centre's kitchen but lacks beds or mattresses.

People who are treated there are forced to lie on the floor and refugee advocates in contact with the men say the centre is not adequately equipped to deal with the situation.

Security staff were sent in early on Sunday morning and at least two men seen as leaders of the protest were moved to the Chauka compound.

Fairfax Media revealed last year that asylum seekers alleged they had been tortured in the compound, which is an isolation area within the detention centre.

Men housed in the centre's Foxtrot compound have written to Mr Dutton saying the situation "is a disaster about to happen".

"We are not willing to be resettled in PNG because there is no safety [or] any future for us and our family (sic). Today we consider us to be hostage for the Australian government so they can deter others not to come to Australia."

Detainees had apparently been hoping their situation would be seen differently by Mr Dutton and wrote to him saying: "We know you are different, not cruel".

Mr Dutton at first denied the hunger strike was taking place but was later forced to acknowledge it.

He said his approach to protesting detainees would be the same as his predecessor, Scott Morrison.

"Whilst there has been a change of minister the absolute resolve of me as the new minister and of the government is to make sure that for those transferees they will never arrive in Australia," Mr Dutton said.

Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition, called on the federal government to intervene.

"Taking leaders hostage or using the riot squad won't stop the hunger strike protest," Mr Rintoul said.

"The tactics are eerily similar to those that ended in tragedy last February [when Iranian detainee Reza Barati died from horrific head injuries after a violent protest]. The Minister must act urgently to prevent a tragedy on Manus Island."

The acting prime minister, Warren Truss, warned on Sunday that "unreliable" information could be coming out of the Manus Island detention centre.

People participating in the protest were being "appropriately cared for", Mr Truss said.

The government would not change its position on relocating detainees at the Manus Island centre to Papua New Guinea, he said.

Sally Thompson, from the Refugee Rights Action Network, said the men in detention on Manus Island no longer wanted to come to Australia.

"They asking to go somewhere safe and PNG is not safe," Ms Thompson said.

"They want the United Nations to intervene."