It's on beautiful, tropical Manus Island where asylum seekers are claiming that their life is hell while taking holidays on nearby idyllic islands and posing for tourist photos akin to a boisterous buck’s weekend.
One of those unfortunates who are whiling away their time in paradise at Australian taxpayers' expense, “Ben”, poses in a number of photos with his iphone headphones and jewellery, wrestling with his mates and sipping coconut milk from straws. His real name is Behnam Moghimi Kivaj. He is from Iran and has formed a close-knit group of friends, including Nouhad Al Aboudi from Iraq, Zubio Kham Orakzai from Pakistan and Walid Zazai, who all tried to get to Australia by boat and have been detained in PNG for up to four years.
Recently they made another boat trip, this time to a nearby island off Manus for a “two-day holiday”. Shirtless, looking bronzed and frolicking in clear blue waters, Ben and his mates hammed it up for the camera. In one photo they buried one their mates, Imran Khan, in sand.
His mate Walid Zazai, an asylum seeker with designer stubble and gold-rimmed, aviator sunglasses and an on-trend white shirt, later posted on Facebook about their trip in May. “I had a lovely 2 days holidays with my lovely, cute, beautiful and best ever friends.” Their posts about the trip include, “drinking coconut water...yumm” and “what a pleasant time hanging with friends”. After the trip, they returned to Manus Island and have ramped up their campaign against the Turnbull Government and the detention centre, which will be bulldozed by the end of the year.
Now that the "refugees" have received their $70-million compensation and the detention centre is closed, I thought that Walid Zazai wants to get out and spend the money but, ironically, he does not want to leave. Mind you, I can't blame him. Many an Australian pensioner would swap places with him in a heartbeat - if the Australian government had the heart to treat its own citizens as generously as these "refugees".
P.S.
1. Q: Have you wondered why none of the oil-rich Gulf states take any of these "refugees" despite these "refugees" being fellow-Muslims and often even sharing the same language? A: The Gulf states want willing workers, and aren't willing to pay endless Western-style social benefits.
2. Q: Have you wondered why none the "refugees" want to go to any of the oil-rich Gulf states despite those Gulf states being Muslim countries and often even sharing the same language? A: See 1.A above.
P.P.S.
Those "refugees" claim to feel 'unsafe' vacating the detention centre as requested by the PNG government, but not unsafe enough to allegedly go into town for sex with under-age girls and deal in drugs - see here.
P.P.P.S.
All of the above-named "refugees" have (or have had) facebook pages which I visited. I don't want to read anything too Freudian into it but at first glance it seems that their main supporters are white middle-aged Western women who either indulge their motherly or some more deep-seated erotic instinct they can't satisfy any other way. And those 'facebook-ing' "refugees" know the exact state of play. As one said, "Your Peter Dutton [our Immigration Minister] would spend less money keeping us on welfare in Australia for the rest of our lives", which is exactly what they have in mind because the only part of the Protestant work ethic they believe in are the first seven letters "Protest". When I asked one "refugee" where he was from and what he was seeking refuge from, he told me to 'eff off, mate' as this was none of my business. Cheeky! And certainly a surprising response when he wants to come to Australia and live off my tax dollars for the rest of his life. His facebook page has since disappeared. I just wished he would too!
