By Deanna Wilken and Anna Killen Genocide Watch staff have published the nineteenth Timestream in a series of critical genocides in the world. This Timestream illustrates the history of Rodrigo Duterte's leadership in the Philippines and how his policies have resulted in countless deaths and human rights abuses. It is estimated that nearly 27,000 people have been killed since Duterte became president in 2016. Duterte's ascension to the presidency has created an ever-growing opposition; however, there has been little push-back against his administration and Duterte continues to persecute those who attempt to oppose him. Until the ICC and other international governing bodies get involved, Duterte will likely continue his course in punishing any resistance. See the full Timestream here and view our other Timestreams here.

By Deanna Wilken and Nat Hill Genocide Watch staff have published the twenty-third Timestream in a series of critical genocides in the world. This Timestream provides a brief history of Ethiopia beginning with the First Italo-Ethiopian war and focuses on the atrocities committed during the Red Terror under Mengistu Haile Mariam, the executions by the transitional government under Meles Zenawi, and the current genocide in Tigray up to May 1, 2021, Minority groups, particularly the Tigrayan, Amhara, and Oromo groups remain the targets of genocidal processes committed by ethnic militias and the federal government. As of May 2021, Genocide Watch considers Ethiopia to be in Stage 9: Extermination. See the full Timestream here and view our other Timestreams here.

By Andrew Wilson Russian Aggression and Denial of Genocide(s) in Ukraine September 2021 Ukraine holds significant geostrategic and agricultural importance for its neighbor, Russia. It became part of the Russian Empire around 1775. It declared an independent Ukrainian National Republic in 1918. But it lost its war of independence (1918-1921) to the Red Army and became part of the Soviet Union. Stalin prioritized the destruction of Ukrainian culture to prevent a second uprising. The Soviet Union inflicted the Holodomor (“death by starvation”), a genocidal famine, on Ukraine from 1932-1933. It intentionally created conditions of life that starved 3.5 to 4 million Ukrainians. Stalin collectivized all farmland in Ukraine. The Soviet NKVD purged Ukraine of its intelligentsia and clergy, the foundations of culture. The Soviet Union imposed quotas for grain production that were impossible to meet and then confiscated all grain that was produced, leaving the farmers to starve. It imposed the “Law of Spikelets” which made the theft of just five stalks of grain punishable by death. The Young Communist League and police confiscated cooking utensils and farming tools. The military blockaded villages so they could not seek food in cities. Stalin expanded these policies to Ukrainian enclaves in Russia, proving his intent to destroy the Ukrainian nation. Stalin launched a large-scale propaganda campaign to cover up the genocide. Walter Duranty of the New York Times wrote articles denying any mass starvation. Many Russians still revere Stalin and dispute claims of genocide. Deniers contend that the famine was only an unfortunate side-effect of collectivization. 16 countries, including the United States, have recognized the Holodomor famine as genocide. During the Holocaust, German Einsatzgruppen and local collaborators murdered 1.5 million Jews in Ukraine. The most famous massacre was at the Babi Yar ravine outside Kiev, where 33,771 Jews were killed in a single operation on 29–30 September 1941. Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism are still prevalent in Ukrainian politics and society. In 1944, Stalin’s secret police, the NKVD, forcibly deported over 180,000 Crimean Tatars to Uzbekistan in just three days. 20-40% of Tatars died in transit or in exile during the next five years. Three Soviet leaders following Stalin (Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, and Mikhail Gorbachev), ended the Russian genocide in Ukraine but they continued the “russification” of Ukraine. The Soviet KGB continued targeted disappearances and imprisonment of Ukrainian leaders. In 1988, the Ukrainian independence movement, led by RUKH, began peaceful resistance to Soviet Russian domination. Under Gorbachev’s policies of Glasnost (“openness”), free newspapers and media grew, and independence leaders were even elected to parliament (Rada). When the KGB arrested Stepan Khmara on the floor of parliament, RUKH turned the repression into a mass movement for independence. [Dr. Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch was legal advisor to RUKH.] On 24 August 1991, Ukraine became independent. In 2014, President Putin sent Russian troops into Crimea to exploit division in Ukraine when the Ukrainian president was defeated for favoring closer ties with Russia. On 18 March 2014, Russia annexed Crimea after a rigged referendum. 140,000 Crimean Ukrainians and Tatars fled the occupied territory as 250,000 Russians took their place. Crimean Tatars who remain on the peninsula face arbitrary arrests and violence. With support from Russia, Russian-speaking militias took over Donetsk and Luhansk, resulting in civil war. Ukraine is at Stage 6: Polarization, Stage 8: Persecution, and Stage 10: Denial. Genocide Watch Recommends: · Russia should officially recognize the Holodomor as genocide. · Russia should remove its troops from the illegally occupied Crimean Peninsula. · Russia should stop supplying weapons and personnel to Russian militias in eastern Ukraine. · The U.S., Canada, and European nations should admit Ukraine to NATO. · NATO should provide Ukraine with the support it needs to defend its independence.

By Charles Negash Fulani jihadists massacred 215 Christians in just one week in April 2022. Credit: Nigeria Premium Times Nigeria Genocide Emergency Alert December 2022 Nigeria is currently undergoing one of the deadliest genocides in the world. More people die in Nigeria every month than in Ukraine. The UNDP estimates that terrorists have killed over 350,000 people in Nigeria since 2009. 300,000 were children. Boko Haram, ISWAP, and Fulani jihadists have also forcibly displaced over 2.9 million Nigerians. The genocidal massacres have mainly targeted Christians. In May 2021, Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau blew himself up to avoid capture by ISWAP. But Boko Haram has not stopped its attacks. In March, 2022 Boko Haram allied with bandits hijacked a passenger train on route from Kaduna to Abuja and kidnapped over 2 dozen civilians. They also briefly captured the Kaduna airport. In the first 3 months of 2022, jihadists murdered over 6000 civilians, the vast majority of whom were Christians. In the Middle Belt and Northwest, Fulani militias have embarked on a campaign of genocidal massacres of Christian farming villages. Their aim is predatory expansion of their grazing land. They are financed by corrupt Nigerian Army officers who own large herds of cattle. The U.S State Department is in full denial about the genocidal nature of the Fulani massacres. It has characterized Fulani terrorism and killings as motivated not by genocidal intent but rather by the scarcity of arable land and the effects of "climate change" on pastoral communities. The US Ambassador to Nigeria and State Department deny the religious nature of the massacres, in which Christian villagers are slaughtered, but Muslim villages are left unharmed. Islamist-inspired mobs have accused Christian girl students of “blasphemy” and stoned them to death. In 2022 in Sokoto, Deborah Immanuel, a student, was accused of blasphemy by fellow students and stoned to death and her body burned. The lynch mob was organized via social media and footage of her stoning went viral on Whatsapp (Meta-owned) social media. Nigerian police and military response to the jihadist killings has been ineffective and abusive. Military campaigns to defeat Boko Haram & ISWAP have killed hundreds of civilians, garnering more support for the terrorist groups. President Buhari is an ethnic Fulani himself. He heads the Fulani Cattlemen's Association. He has turned a blind eye to the Fulani massacres of Christians. In 2022, the Nigerian government released leading Boko Haram terrorists. Anti-grazing laws passed by regional states to curb Fulani encroachments have targeted pastoralists, hampering their way of life. There have been retaliatory attacks on nomadic Fulani herdsmen and rampant anti-Fulani hate speech. Due to the organized massacres of Christians by Boko Haram, ISWAP, and Fulani jihadist militias, Genocide Watch considers Nigeria to be at Stage: 9 Extermination and Stage 10: Denial. Genocide Watch recommends: The UN Human Rights Council should appoint an independent investigative team for Nigeria. The U.S. State Department should return Nigeria to its list of Countries of Particular Concern. Nigeria’s federal and regional governments should organize a Strike Force to stop jihadist massacres. Nigeria should establish defined grazing areas for Fulani herdsmen but repeal anti-grazing laws that threaten the Fulani nomadic way of life and livelihood. Nigerian civil society leaders should condemn anti-Fulani and anti-Christian hate speech. Meta (Whatsapp and Facebook) should not allow its platforms to be utilized for organizing genocidal attacks. Christian churches should organize human rights centers and early warning programs. Christian and Muslim religious leaders should establish programs for interfaith action against violence.

June 19 2024: The Egyptian authorities must immediately cease the mass arbitrary arrests and unlawful deportations of Sudanese refugees who had crossed the border into Egypt seeking refuge from the conflict in Sudan, Amnesty International said today, in a new report published ahead of World Refugee Day. The report, “Handcuffed like dangerous criminals”: Arbitrary detention and forced returns of Sudanese refugees in Egypt, reveals how Sudanese refugees are rounded up and unlawfully deported to Sudan – an active conflict zone – without due process or opportunity to claim asylum in flagrant violation of international law. Evidence indicates that thousands of Sudanese refugees have been arbitrarily arrested and subsequently collectively expelled with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimating that 3,000 people were deported to Sudan from Egypt in September 2023 alone. “It is unfathomable that Sudanese women, men and children fleeing the armed conflict in their country and seeking safety across the border into Egypt, are being rounded up en masse and arbitrarily detained in deplorable and inhumane conditions before being unlawfully deported,” said Sara Hashash, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International. “Egyptian authorities must immediately end this virulent campaign of mass arrests and collective expulsions. They must abide by their obligations under international human rights and refugee law to provide those fleeing the conflict in Sudan with safe and dignified passage to Egypt and unrestricted access to asylum procedures.” "Egyptian authorities must immediately end this virulent campaign of mass arrests and collective expulsions." -Sara Hashash, MENA Deputy Regional Director For decades, Egypt was home to millions of Sudanese people studying, working, investing or receiving healthcare in the country, with Sudanese women and girls, as well as boys under 16, and men over 49 exempt from entry requirements. Around 500,000 Sudanese refugees are estimated to have fled to Egypt after the armed conflict erupted in Sudan in April 2023. However, in the following month, the Egyptian government introduced a visa entry requirement for all Sudanese nationals, leaving those fleeing with little choice but to escape through irregular border crossings. The report documents in detail the ordeals of 27 Sudanese refugees who were arbitrarily arrested with about 260 others between October 2023 and March 2024 by Egypt’s Border Guard Forces operating under the Ministry of Defence, as well as police operating under the Ministry of Interior. It further documents  how the authorities forcibly returned an estimated 800 Sudanese detainees between January and March 2024 who were all denied the possibility to claim asylum, including by accessing UNHCR, or to challenge deportation decisions. The report is based on interviews with detained refugees, their relatives, community leaders, lawyers and a medical professional; as well as a review of official statements and documents and audiovisual evidence. The Egyptian ministries of defence and interior did not respond to Amnesty International’s letters sharing its documentation and recommendations, while the Egyptian National Council of Human Rights, the national human rights institution, rejected the findings claiming that authorities comply by their international obligations. The spike in mass arrests and expulsions came after a prime ministerial decree issued in August 2023 requiring foreign nationals in Egypt to regularize their status. This was accompanied by a rise in xenophobic and racist sentiments both online and in the media as well as statements by government officials criticizing the economic “burden” of hosting “millions” of refugees. It has also taken place against the backdrop of increased EU cooperation with Egypt on migration and border control, despite the country’s grim human rights record and well-documented abuses against migrants and refugees. In October 2022, the EU and Egypt signed an €80 million cooperation agreement, which included building up the capacity of Egyptian Border Guard Forces to curb irregular migration and human trafficking across Egypt’s border. The agreement purports to apply “rights-based, protection oriented and gender sensitive approaches”. Yet, Amnesty International’s new report documents the involvement of the Border Guard Forces in violations against Sudanese refugees. A further aid and investment package, under which migration is a key pillar, was agreed in March 2024 as part of the newly announced strategic and comprehensive partnership between the EU and Egypt. "By cooperating with Egypt in the migration field without rigorous human rights safeguards, the EU risks complicity in Egypt’s human rights violations." -Sara Hashash, MENA Deputy Regional Director “By cooperating with Egypt in the migration field without rigorous human rights safeguards, the EU risks complicity in Egypt’s human rights violations. The EU must press Egyptian authorities to adopt concrete measures to protect refugees and migrants,” said Sara Hashash. “The EU must also carry out rigorous human rights risk assessments before implementing any migration cooperation and put in place independent monitoring mechanisms with clear human rights benchmarks. Cooperation must be halted or suspended immediately if there are risks or reports of abuses.” Arbitrary Arrests From Streets and Hospitals The mass arrests have mostly taken place in Greater Cairo (encompassing Cairo and Giza) and in the border areas in the governorate of Aswan or inside Aswan city. In Cairo and Giza, police have conducted mass stops and identity checks targeting Black individuals, spreading fear within the refugee community leaving many afraid to leave their homes. Following arrest by police in Aswan, Sudanese refugees are transferred to police stations or the Central Security Forces camp, an unofficial detention place, in Shallal region. Those arrested by Border Guard Forces in Aswan governorate are detained in makeshift detention facilities including warehouses inside a military site in Abu Simbel and a horse stable inside another military site near Nagaa Al Karur before being forced into buses and vans and driven to the Sudanese border. Conditions in these detention facilities are cruel and inhumane, with overcrowding, lack of access to toilets and sanitation facilities, substandard and insufficient food, and denial of adequate healthcare. Amnesty International also documented the arrest of at least 14 refugees from public hospitals in Aswan, where they were receiving treatment for serious injuries sustained during road accidents on their journeys from Sudan to Egypt. Authorities transferred them – against medical advice and before they had fully recovered – to detention, where they were forced to sleep on the ground after surgery. Amira, a 32-year-old Sudanese woman who fled Khartoum with her mother was receiving treatment at an Aswan hospital following a car crash on 29 October 2023 that left her with fractures to the neck and the back. Nora, a relative of Amira, told the organization that the doctors told her she would need three months of medical care, but after just 18 days police transferred her to a police station in Aswan where she was forced to sleep on the ground for around 10 days. Cold and Rat-Infested Detention Facilities Before Collective Expulsions Amnesty International’s Evidence Lab reviewed photos and verified videos from January 2024 of women and children sitting on dirty floors amidst rubbish in a warehouse controlled by Egyptian border guards. The former detainees said the warehouses were infested by rats and pigeon nests and those detained endured cold nights with no appropriate clothing or blankets. Men’s warehouse conditions were overcrowded, with over a hundred men crammed together and limited access to overflowing toilets, forcing them to urinate in plastic bottles at night. At least 11 children, some under the age of four, were detained with their mothers at these sites. Israa, who has asthma, told Amnesty International that guards at the overcrowded horse stable near Nagaa Al Karur village ignored her request for an inhaler, even when she asked to buy one at her own expense. After periods of detention ranging from a few days six weeks, police and Border Guard Forces handcuffed males and drove all detainees to the Qustul-Ashkeet border crossing and handed them to Sudanese authorities, without individualised assessment of risk of serious human rights violations if returned. None was given the opportunity to claim asylum even when they had registration appointments with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), asked to speak to UNHCR or pleaded not to be sent back. Such forced returns violate Egypt’s international obligations under human rights and refugee law, including the principle of non-refoulement. Border Guard Forces expelled Ahmed, his wife and two-year-old child together with a group of roughly 200 detainees, on 26 February 2024, after detaining them for six days in Abu Simbel military site. Since the conflict in Sudan began, Egyptian authorities have failed to provide statistics or acknowledge their policy of deportations. © 2024 Amnesty International

Mourners attend a mass funeral in Zabarmari, Nigeria, for 43 farm workers whose throats were slit the day before, authorities said, by Boko Haram fighters in rice fields. AUDU MARTE / Contributor / Getty Images Map of Jihadist Massacres in Nigeria 2009 - 2024 Map created by Béla Müller for Genocide Watch. To view video, click here or on image. Map of Jihadist Massacres in Nigeria 2009 - 2020 To view YouTube video showing spread of jihadist attacks 2009 - 2020, click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHRDNYI6dz4 or on map. Map created by Eric Ross for Genocide Watch. Maps

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered retaliation after a humiliating security failure, as Iran once again balances showing strength against the risk of escalation. By Farnaz Fassihi July 31, 2024, 3:08 p.m. ET Images of Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader who was assassinated in Iran on Wednesday, at a square in Tehran. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued an order for Iran to strike Israel directly, in retaliation for the killing in Tehran of Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, according to three Iranian officials briefed on the order. Mr. Khamenei gave the order at an emergency meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on Wednesday morning, shortly after Iran announced that Mr. Haniyeh had been killed, said the three Iranian officials, including two members of the Revolutionary Guards. They asked that their names not be published because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of the assassination; Israel, which is at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has neither acknowledged nor denied killing Mr. Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president. Israel has a long history of killing enemies abroad, including Iranian nuclear scientists and military commanders. Through almost 10 months of war in Gaza, Iran has tried to strike a balance, putting pressure on Israel with sharply increased attacks by its allies and proxy forces in the region, while avoiding an all-out war between the two nations. In April, Iran made its biggest and most overt attack on Israel in decades of hostility, launching hundreds of missiles and drones in retaliation for an Israeli strike on its embassy compound that killed several Iranian military commanders in Damascus, Syria. But even that show of force was telegraphed well in advance, nearly all the weapons were shot down by Israel and its allies, and little damage was done. Now it is unclear how forcefully Iran will respond, and whether it will once again calibrate its attack to steer clear of escalation. Iranian military commanders are considering another combination attack of drones and missiles on military targets in the vicinity of Tel Aviv and Haifa, but would make a point of avoiding strikes on civilian targets, the Iranian officials said. One option under consideration is a coordinated attack from Iran and other fronts where it has allied forces, including Yemen, Syria and Iraq, for maximum effect, they said. Mr. Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters and is also the commander in chief of the armed forces, instructed military commanders from the Revolutionary Guards and the army to prepare plans for both an attack and a defense in the event that the war expands and Israel or the United States strike Iran, the officials said. In his public statement about Mr. Haniyeh’s death, Mr. Khamenei signaled that Iran would retaliate directly, saying, “we see avenging his blood our duty,” because it happened on the territory of the Islamic Republic. He said Israel had set the stage for receiving “a severe punishment.” Statements from other Iranian officials, including the new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, the foreign ministry, the Guards and Iran’s mission to the U.N., also said openly that Iran would retaliate against Israel and that it had a right to defend itself against a transgression on its sovereignty. Iran and the regional forces it backs — Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and multiple militias in Iraq — form what they call the “axis of resistance.” Leaders of those groups were in Tehran for the inauguration of Mr. Pezeshkian on Tuesday. Mr. Haniyeh was assassinated at about 2 a.m. local time, after attending the ceremony and meeting with Mr. Khamenei. The killing shocked Iranian officials, who described it as crossing red lines. It was a humiliating security breach for a country eager to project strength but long frustrated by its inability to prevent Israel from carrying out covert operations on its soil. The embarrassment was compounded by Mr. Haniyeh’s prominence, the presence of other allies, and that he was attacked at a highly secure Revolutionary Guards guesthouse on a day of heightened security in the capital. Many Iranian supporters of the government and officials expressed outrage at the failure to thwart the assassination, saying only a handful of senior security officials would have known where Mr. Haniyeh was staying. Some took to social media to say that Iran’s first priority should be to clean house and ensure the safety of its senior officials. “Before revenge first ensure the safety of the supreme leader,” said Alireza Katebi Jahromi, a journalist and supporter of Iran’s government, in a post on X. Iranian officials don’t view Mr. Haniyeh’s assassination as just Israel’s opportunistic killing of one of its foes, but also as an affront to their security apparatus that suggests anyone in Iran, at any level, could be targeted and killed. Analysts said that Iran sees retaliation as necessary for both avenging the killing of Mr. Haniyeh but also deterrence against Israel killing other powerful enemies, like Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, or Gen. Ismail Qaani, the commander of the Quds Forces who oversees the militant groups outside Iran. “Iran likely believes it has no choice other than retaliating to deter further Israeli attacks, defend its sovereignty, and preserve its credibility in the eyes of its regional partners,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran director of the International Crisis Group. © 2024 The New York Times Company

A new law states that all asylum seekers are to be kept in camps. Just a year ago, Hungary put up razor-wire fences along the country's southern border. Refugees now fear harsher treatment under a new law. (c) Al Jazeera 2017

It began when Richardson quit an international advisory board on the Rohingya crisis, labelling it a "government whitewash" and saying Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi "lacks moral authority". Myanmar now says it asked him to quit. Al Jazeera's Scott Heidler has more from Yangon, Myanmar http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/diplomat-rift-myanmars-government-180127084651895.html (c) 2018 Al Jeezera

An estimated 600,000 Rohingya refugees have fled violence into Bangladesh [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera] Activists have called for stronger action to stop the "ongoing genocide" against Rohingya Muslims after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he was against "broad-based economic sanctions" against Myanmar. At a joint press conference with Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the capital Naypyitaw on Wednesday, Tillerson said he favoured individual sanctions against military officials based on "credible and reliable information" of their involvement in atrocities. Responding to Tillerson's call for an independent investigation, Tun Khin - president of Burmese Rohingya Organisation based in the UK - asked how it will be carried out when the military is refusing to allow a fact-finding mission on the ground. "Rohingya people are facing genocide in the 21st century. This is the time to act. What the US and the international community is doing is not enough," said Tun Khin. According to a report published on Tuesday by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Fortify Rights, there is "mounting evidence" of genocide against the Rohingya in Myanmar. "These crimes thrive on impunity and inaction," said Matthew Smith, chief executive officer of Fortify Rights in a statement. "Condemnations aren’t enough. Without urgent international action towards accountability, more mass killings are likely." Tun Khin called for targeted sanctions against Myanmar's military, which has driven out about 600,000 Rohingya from western Rakhine state into neighbouring Bangladesh since August. "Every day Rohingyas are being killed and their houses burnt. It's two-and-a-half months since the military offensive began and still atrocities are continuing," he said. "We demand that Myanmar be referred to the ICC [the International Criminal Court] and the UN peace-keeping force be deployed to protect the lives of Rohingya. We also need a UN-mandated global arms embargo on the country." Human rights activists have also lambasted a report by Myanmar's army that said no Rohingya civilians were killed in the military crackdown launched in the wake of deadly attacks on soldiers by an armed Rohingya group. Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist based in Germany, said the army will never admit its crimes against the Rohingya - which troops have been committing for the past 39 years. "They have committed many crimes against other minorities as well such as Karen, Kachin and Shan," said Ro Nay San Lwin. Myanmar's army has transferred Major-General Maung Maung Soe, who was behind the crackdown against the Rohingya, to another post. But Ro Nay San Lwin said this was just a "public relations exercise". "This was done to show that they [the military] are taking actions ahead of Tillerson's visit." _________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Aljazeera

Refugees and asylum seekers protest against Australia’s offshore processing policy at a detention center on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. © 2017 Private Last month, after more than four years of suffering, 25 excited and nervous male refugees left Papua New Guinea's remote Manus Island for a new life in the United States. Left behind are another 800 men - refugees and asylum-seekers - who are wondering if they too will be rescued by the US government or remain in a dead-end limbo while exposed to violence in Papua New Guinea. "We didn't know if the US deal was real or fake," a refugee from Pakistan told me. He has completed his US interview but is not among the 25 who left for the US. "Now we know, but I am still so worried. How many will the US take and when? And who will be left behind?" For more than four years, Australia has warehoused these men in Papua New Guinea in harsh and dangerous conditions. Papua New Guinea has recognised most of them as refugees who fled persecution in their home countries. They attempted perilous boat journeys to Australia. Instead of finding refuge there, they have faced violent attacks by Papua New Guinean locals and security forces, inadequate medical care, and uncertainty about their future. Australia's policy of offshore processing is designed to deter future boat migrants. But Manus Island has not turned out to be a welcoming or safe place for the refugees. Quite the opposite. I visited Manus Island last week and met men who had been beaten, robbed, and stabbed by young men from the local Papuan community. I met refugee men so paralysed by fear that they rarely leave the guarded centres where they live. One of them, 35-year-old Jahim (not his real name) from Bangladesh, told me what happened one June morning when he and a friend were in Lorengau town to buy a chicken. A group of local men cornered them, demanding they hand over their phones and belongings. Initially, Jahim resisted. A man put a knife to his throat. "I was too late in handing over the phone. It's the only way to contact my family. Then he cut me here." He shows me a long scar at his elbow. Following the attack, Jahim went to the local hospital. He says hospital staff claimed they could not treat him, and only offered him some pain relief. So Jahim took a taxi to the main detention centre on a naval base, which maintains a medical clinic. From there, authorities sent Jahim by plane to Port Moresby hospital for surgery. Nearly everyone I spoke to had witnessed or experienced violence or theft by local men, usually young, often intoxicated. The night before I arrived, a large group of local youths beat two Afghans near the transit centre. "I hadn't left the transit centre in three months because I don't feel safe," one of the refugees told me. "I went out and they wanted to fight us. They beat me with sticks, with rocks until I fell down dizzy. They took my phone, my money." His face was still swollen from the beating. Refugees say Manus police have not held anyone to account for these robberies. Refugees have stopped reporting the cases to the police because of their inaction. Jahim told me, "I didn't tell the police. The police are not listening to us. It's not my country. Now when I see Papuans, I feel scared. I don't come to town." The Australian government forcibly transferred these men to Manus Island. Now it is forcing them to leave the main detention centre by October 31, and has already started dismantling some buildings. Australian and Papua New Guinean officials say the men must move to a less-secure transit facility closer to town or else return to their home countries. Supposedly, this is to implement a Supreme Court ruling from April 2015, which ruled detention of the men at the centre unconstitutional, forcing both governments to unlock the gates and provide some freedom of movement. I don't think another forcible transfer is what the judges had in mind. It is a tragic irony that the only place on Manus Island these men feel safe right now is inside a centre where occasionally soldiers and police have shot at them, where locals once attacked them with machetes and beat them. But that centre, for now, is guarded and provides some security. Papua New Guinea is not a safe place for any foreigner, but it is especially dangerous for young men without money or connections, many of whom do not speak English and have little experience of living in hostile foreign environments. However grudgingly, the US government has done Australia a favour by agreeing to resettle some of the men from Manus Island and some of the 1,100 men, women and children from Nauru. But that's no excuse for Australia's inaction about those who remain. Australia should immediately end offshore processing and resettlement by bringing every one of these men, women and children here to either have their asylum claims processed or if they are refugees, to restart their lives here. As Australia's partner, the US can help, by insisting that Australia should leave nobody behind in Papua New Guinea or Nauru. It can press Australia to accept offers to take some of the refugees that have been made by other generous third countries like New Zealand. Every day these men remain on Manus is another day of suffering. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Al Jazeera

Nasima, Khatun, 60 [Katie Arnold/Al Jazeera] Nasima Khatun, 60, comes from Rakhine State, Myanmar, which she fled a few weeks ago. "My name is Nasima Khatun and I am 60 years old. We lived a quite life before the crisis, my husband was a fisherman and we had three daughters - we lived very well for Rohingya. Although we encountered some pressure from the military, we did not face any problems with regards to food or shelter. When the military started firing their guns in our village we all ran in different directions. I was hiding in the jungle when someone told me my husband had been shot. I felt helpless and afraid. The military took over the village so I could not return to bring back the body, we had to leave him there and quickly move to Bangladesh. I travelled with my daughters and some neighbours from the village, we could not carry anything with us so we just ate and drank whatever we found on the way. One day, we passed an abandoned shop which we looted - that was the only real food we ate during the 10-day journey; we were so hungry. I cried and cried the whole way so my neighbours took pity on me and paid for our boat trip across to Bangladesh. I was so sad to leave Myanmar, I lost my husband there, my house, my land and everything I own. We've managed to build a shelter here, and the local Bangladeshis have supported us with food donations. But I have no opportunity to earn money, there is no work for us to do. What type of future can we have if we don't have any money? Everyone wants to go back to Myanmar but I don't think that will ever be possible, it will never be safe there again. If we go back we'll be either tortured or killed. I believe the world is watching our situation. My request is that they empathise - that the world hears our stories of sorrow and death and imagines how they would feel in our shoes." ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ © 2017 Al Jazeera