From Behind the Wire and the Wheeler Centre, The Messenger brings you into the Australian immigration detention centre on Manus Island – and reveals, in intimate detail, one man's experience of what it's really like to flee tragedy and seek asylum by boat.
The Messenger is based on thousands of voice messages sent by Abdul Aziz Muhamat, a refugee currently detained on the Australian-run detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, to Michael Green, a journalist based in Melbourne.
Since March 2016, Aziz has been reporting from Manus in short 30 second bursts, via WhatsApp messages sent from a smuggled phone. On the day his correspondence kicks off with Michael, he’s already been in detention for 864 days.
Aziz tells the inside story – the good and the bad – of a place that consistently features in the headlines. A place some consider a necessary product of a successful border control policy, for others, a stain on Australia’s reputation from which it will never recover. A place that despite dominating the news, remains largely unknown and unknowable by the public.
This story involves Australia and the small island nations of Manus and Nauru, but it’s also a global story. Right now, people are fleeing for their lives in many parts of the world. What Australia is doing by detaining asylum seekers offshore is unique, but it might not be unique for very long. Some politicians in other countries have criticised the policy, but others want to copy it. Either way, the world is watching.
And Aziz wants to tell them what’s going on.
Begins Monday 23 January at wheelercentre.com. Subscribe here.