Headline Nov. 29/ ''' DETENTIONS OF THE *DREAMERS* '''

''' DETENTIONS OF THE 

*DREAMERS* '''

THE BITTER FACT IS THAT THERE are just one too many refugees the world over, and sadly, - and not too many caring *Leader Stars*...

As the world faces the prospect of a terribly unstable times in an unstable world. And in the meantime, Refugees languish on an island, without hope and any kind of understanding and mercy.  

Fear and defiance rose as conditions deteriorated and the refugees felt abandoned. These new detention facilities are set apart from the main roads and closely guarded.

At one of the new facilities, West Lorengau Haus, the electricity and water had not been turned on    when representatives of the United Nations refugee visited days after the main camp had officially closed.

''It's still a construction site -you can't just move refugees into that space,'' said Ms. Stubberfield, the spokeswoman. The two other sites also had problems.

Kepo Pomat, who owns the land that facility occupies, said he had issued the authorities an ultimatum : If his company did not receive the caseworkers employment contracts, he would kick the refugees off his property

Part of the problem is the government of Australia and Papua New Guinea are at odds over who is responsible for the men. Australia says Papua New Guinea is in charge of providing for them.

Papua New Guinea says it is willing to house the refugees, but it is Australia's responsibility to pay for their expenses and pursue ways for them to leave.

''We've been urging that the Australians keep up their responsibility.'' said Duncan Joseph, a community leader and island's Red Cross representative.. 

''The fact that they have withdrawn and drastically scaled back services doesn't change that for us, morally and legally, they are responsible for these men.''

Many of the detainees who have moved to the new sites reported crowded dormitories and delays with getting food. Some did not receive their weekly stipend of $30 for medicine and incidentals they were promised upon arrival.

Mohyadin Omar, 27, a lawyer with a soft demeanor, who fled Somalia in 2013, said the move to the transit center had made him consider returning to Mogadishu.

He is a certified refugee who lost his entire family to war. He fears he will be killed back home, but he may go anyway.

''I'm tortured four years here,'' he said. ''I'm done''. And back inside the main detention camp, conditions deteriorated quickly after the Australians officially left on Oct 31, cutting off the electricity and water before departing.

In the equatorial heat, the men who were sick got sicker. Asthmatics needed inhalers. Diabetics needed insulin.     

They showed off the well they had dug for water, and the protest signs they posted on Twitter using cracked cellphones, cherished like fine crystal. 

They made clear they want to be resettled in a third country, neither Australia nor Papua New Guinea.

In the meantime they were surviving. They were defying the authorities. Thanks in part to  money from supportive Australians and local boast pilots risking arrest, they had cigarettes, a stash of booze and a measure of what they have most craved : agency and autonomy.

''There are many things that brought us to the point where we've said we will never go.'' Mr. Satah said when he was still in Lorengau gathering supplies. ''But remember we don't come here by choice.''

Behrouz Boochani, and Iranian Kurd who has become well-known for writing from the camp, put it more simply in a resistance manifesto : 

''All the conversations are driven by one thing,  and one thing only, and that is freedom,''  he wrote.  ''Only Freedom".

Why then more of the men not tried to pursue a future in Papua New Guinea? After I spent time in Lorengau, it became clear : Even for those who have made a life in Manus, there are real challenged.

Mustafizah Rahman, 25, an asylum seeker from Bangladesh, married a local woman and opened a shop in a red shipping container near the main Lorengau market.

There, he said, he is pursuing his dream ''to become a multimillionaire''.

The island's residents consider him a model of integration. But Mr. Rahman, whose wife is eight months pregnant, remains stateless, he said, without formal residency in Papua New Guinea.

Lorengau has become increasingly crowded with climate change refugees who have moved there from more remote islands, and Mr. Rahman said he was barely getting by after paying for rising rent and food costs.

''Not everyone can do this,'' Mr. Rahman said, between customers. ''We're really not accepted in this country. If they bring everyone to town, many people will die.''

The fear of violence is shared by many of the asylum seekers, who have been targets of attacks in Manus and on other ports of Papua New Guinea, as they have been in other countries.

A recent Human Rights Watch report documented a series of cellphone thefts and attacks, some involving machetes.

Kakau Karani, Lorengau's acting mayor, said that the risks were exaggerated and that in fact many residents had provided the men with food, lodging and work. 

Around 10 children have been born to asylum seekers and local women, the mayor said, adding, ''If we weren't friendly, we would not be making babies here.''

Other residents worry that the mean are preying on local women.

Ultimately, both asylum seekers and the local residents are a mix of potential and risks.

Some of the detainees are resilient and have learned new languages. Others survive with sleeping pills or drink too much   -as do some local men.

Australia says  offshore detention  has reduced trafficking and deaths at sea, Mr. Turnbull has rejected an offer from New Zealand  to take 150 of the refugees, arguing it would encourage traffickers.

But for Manus,  the efforts are evolving and still being tallied. Six detainees have died here. 

A small number have reached Australia for medical treatment. Hundreds have left, after agreeing to deportation. And 54 refugees from Manus and Nauru have made it to the United States. 

When might more follow?

Yassir Hussein, a one of the camp's leaders, said he often contemplated ideals like liberty and justice and what they mean for migration's *winners and losers*.

''We are the happy for lucky ones,'' he said.  ''But why are they lucky? Why are we not lucky?''  

With respectful dedication to the Refugees the world over, Leaders, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW! -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Not Enough Stars '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless