LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A group of senior Australian doctors have written an open letter to their government citing “great concern” for the physical and mental health of hundreds of asylum seekers cleared from an abandoned Australian-run detention camp in Papua New Guinea. The doctors outlined a range of concerns from poor hygiene and sanitation to the spread of disease and called for an immediate review of the health of the men still on Manus Island, offering to conduct the medical assessments themselves. “They, like all human beings, have
a universal right – enshrined in the United Nations charter – to health and well-being. Their political and citizenship status should not affect this right,” read the letter, published yesterday.

• Tags: asylum seekers, Australian-run detention camp, Manus Island, Papua New Guinea