Human teeth found in meal and food poisoning - Manus Island gulag

Human teeth were found in a meal served to detainees on Manus Island, one of Australia's asylum seeker gulags like Nauru. The teeth were stained red and therefore likely from one of the residents of the Island who often eat betel nut.

Only a few days before the inmates got sick with food poisoning.

Transfield, the private company that runs the place, didn't bother returning any calls to The Guardian in Sydney.


Disgusting. I feel like throwing up just looking at the picture.

The two human teeth were found in a meal served at lunchtime in Oscar compound on Saturday. 

The asylum seeker photographed the teeth and made a formal complaint to the detention centre managers. 

“This is the food they give us, always like this, always disgusting,” an asylum seeker, not the complainant, told Guardian Australia. “They treat us like animals, worse than animals.” 

Transfield Services in Sydney did not return repeated calls and emails from Guardian Australia. 

But two Transfield staff on Manus Island separately confirmed to Guardian Australia the teeth had been found and a complaint lodged. “We know about that,” one said. “People are talking about it.” 

It’s not known from whose mouth the teeth came or how they came to be in the food. They appeared to be stained red with betel nut juice: the nut is widely chewed on the island, mixed with powdered lime and mustard stick. 

Several asylum seekers refused to eat lunch after the tooth was found. 

It is not the first time teeth have been found in food in the detention centre. In 2013, Amnesty International reported that a tooth had been found in a meal served in the detention centre. 

And the teeth being found Sunday follows a mass outbreak of food poisoning affecting up to 100 asylum seekers and refugees in the detention centre on Friday. The Guardian