SYDNEY (Amnesty International) – The Australian government is expected to end its contract today with International Health and Medical Services (IHMS), which provides healthcare for the refugees and asylum seekers Australia has sent to Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Kate Schuetze, Amnesty International’s Pacific researcher, said: “Ever since the Australian Government began shipping refugees out to detention centres on remote tropical islands, they have been trying to hide from the consequences of its cruel policy.
Withdrawing healthcare is Australia’s latest deplorable attempt to shift the responsibility for the suffering it has caused.”
She said the health situation for refugees and asylum seekers in PNG was already dire, but the end of the IHMS contract threatens to turn this into an all out crisis. PACNEWS
