No asylum seeker processed on Manus Island

The TV show here Dateline on SBS has aired what looks like a very important program about the Asylum seeker detention centre the Australian gov set up 9 months back. Quite apart from the secrecy involved from the Australian gov (this was the first reporter to get inside the centre) and all the other atrocities going on there (people hanging themselves, cutting), there is perhaps one fact that stands out as the most appalling of all.

There has not been one single person there interviewed by the Dept of Immigration since it opened 9 months ago.

He's been there since day one and not a single immigration official has interviewed him about his case - not once. And all of the guards confirm that no-one else has been interviewed either - in nine months, not one. 

GUARD: They are asking all the time when they are going for the processing. 

REPORTER: But some of these people have been there since it opened? 

GUARD: Yeah. 

REPORTER: So last August or something? 

GUARD: Hm. 

REPORTER: And they haven't been processed? 

GUARD: No.

transcript SBS

I can't imagine how it must feel to be living in such a hopeless situation.