US President Donald Trump was full of praise for Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the G20, a love fest that began before he even arrived in Japan.
Amid heightened media scrutiny over the tragic fate of a father and daughter who died on the US-Mexico border, Trump on Wednesday tweeted pictures of four fliers distributed by the Australian government warning migrants against attempting to enter into the country, adding that “much can be learned!”
As Australia’s immigration and border protection minister, Morrison in 2013 oversaw the “Sovereign Borders” policy aimed at preventing people smuggling and asylum seekers deaths at sea.
While that policy was successful in lowering the number of people arriving in Australia, it achieved this in part by massively expanding the number of people held in offshore detention camps on the Pacific nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
Following Morrison’s surprise win in May’s general election, at least nine people attempted to take their own lives in a camp on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, where around 500 people are still held in detention.
The incidents on Manus were only the beginning of a wave of attempted suicides and cases of self-harm on the island. This month at least eight other men followed suit, including a Sudanese man who set himself on fire and an Iranian who attempted to hang himself but was cut down by guards, according to witnesses.
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