Sudanese refugee wins human rights award

Sudanese refugee wins human rights award


02-14-2019, 02:38 AM


  » http://sudaneseonline.com/cgi-bin/esdb/2bb.cgi?seq=msg&board=10&msg=1550108293&rn=0


Post: #1
Title: Sudanese refugee wins human rights award
Author: SudaneseOnline News
Date: 02-14-2019, 02:38 AM

01:38 AM February, 13 2019

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A Sudanese asylum seeker who spent years in detention in Australia has been named the winner of an international human rights prize.


A Sudanese asylum seeker activist who spent four years in an Australian detention centre has won an international human rights prize for exposing "the very cruel refugee policy of the Australian government".

Abdul Aziz Muhamat was named the winner of the Martin Ennals Award 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday.

Muhamat was sent to Manus Island in Papua New Guinea in 2013 after his boat was intercepted by Australian authorities. He later revealed the conditions of the camp through podcasts and media interviews.

"This award sheds light on the very cruel refugee policy of the Australian Government," he said in a statement accepting the award.

Brian Dooley of Human Rights First, one of the jury members of the Ennals Award, said migrant rights are under attack across the world.

"Defending those rights is increasingly difficult and dangerous. Aziz is a modern-day human rights defender fighting for justice in one of the harshest places in the world," he added.

The United Nations refugee agency, in a statement praising Muhamat's advocacy work, said the UNHCR "continues to urge that solutions be found for all refugees and asylum-seekers under Australia's offshore processing in Papua New Guinea and Nauru as a matter of urgency".

The Manus Island detention centre was closed in November 2017 when inmates were transferred to new accommodation in Lorengau

news.com.au