Award Winner Updates

Eaten Fish Ends Hunger Strike

Share

CRNI can report that, after 19 days on hunger strike, Eaten Fish has decided to end his protest. He currently weighs 46 kg.

I m going to start eating just now and end the protest…
I wanted to protest and keep doing it but but hunger strike…

Posted by Mr. EatenFish Arts on Friday, 17 February 2017

On its face the strike’s end is good news but it will have had a deleterious affect on Eaten Fish’s health and it is clear that his thoughts dwell on self-destruction. In an earlier Facebook message the cartoonist described feelings of fatigue and despair and once again made plain that the reason for his drastic action was the series of sexual assaults he says occurred during his time on Manus Island, claims that have been rejected and remain uninvestigated by the authorities.

Share these important words please… 🙏

I’ve seen the cartoons of those cartoonists and artists friends…
I see that…

Posted by Mr. EatenFish Arts on Friday, 17 February 2017

We note that Eaten Fish has seen and taken comfort from some of the many cartoons that have been posted under the #AddAFish banner and we encourage that campaign to continue until there is a positive solution to this shameful blot on Australia’s human rights record.

With typical gallows humour, Eaten Fish suggests there’s an upside to being on hunger strike.

 To Report a Cartoonist in Danger  Email Cartoonists Rights Network International

Eaten Fish cited in Australian Senate

Share

Earlier today co-deputy leader of the Australian Greens and senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam spoke in the senate chamber about the plight of Eaten Fish.


Video of the statement: portion concerning Manus Island and Eaten Fish commences at 13:17 mark.

After a statement about climate change and the current heatwave and flooding in Australia the senator moved on to displaced people generally and Eaten Fish in particular:

“What I find most perverse is that the same people working hardest to prevent clean energy companies from getting a start in Australia are the same ones who are the most horrified at the idea of giving safe harbour to refugees.

It’s about the most brutal failure to put two and two together imaginable. Here’s one really obvious example. There are around 170 million people living in Bangladesh; say about 7 times the population of Australia. Most of these men and women and children, sisters, brothers, grandparents, grandchildren, live on alluvial floodplains on the edge of the Indian Ocean. Conservatively, 10% of the land area will be inundated if the sea level rises one meter. Not in a slow and gradual manner, but given effect by violent storm surges and hurricanes.

How many people do you think will realistically be on the move by mid-century?

Like many people I’m at risk of becoming numb to the statistics of suicides, murders, mental illness, sexual assault and rape on the island internment camps that are Australia’s national shame. It is essential that we don’t turn away from the horrors being inflicted in our name, because the way we treat desperate people forced to flee their homes will be the issue that defines whether the human family survives this century or not.

Last week the Government began forcibly deporting people from Manus Island.

The UN Refugee Agency has said that no deportations should take place, because there are concerns about how people’s refugee claims have been assessed. Asylum seekers on the island have provided dozens of examples of mistakes, inconsistencies and perverse decisions. Legal avenues for the asylum seekers have not been exhausted, with many having not yet been subject to judicial review.

The detention centre in Manus Island was declared illegal 10 months ago. The PNG Supreme Court ruled in April that the indefinite detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island was unconstitutional and but nothing has been done to close it down.

Today the Liberal and Labour parties washed their collective hands of responsibility, refusing to support a Greens motion opposing forced deportations.

I said I would avoid statistics, so let us learn a little more of one individual. Iran, the theocracy that the United States Government set in place when the CIA overthrew a democratically elected Government in 1953 has long refused to accept any person who is repatriated involuntarily. This means that these poor people face the prospect of indeterminate detentions or worse when they are forced to return.

One such person is the Iranian asylum seeker and cartoonist known by pen name Eaten Fish. He’s 25-year-old. His real name is Ali. He suffers severe mental illness. He has been on a hunger strike for 16 days today. He’s bleeding from his stomach and he is becoming more and more unwell. His ability to be lucid is deteriorating and he’s desperate.

Eaten Fish has received a deportation notice, but he wants people to know that he’s not on hunger strike for that reason. He’s on hunger strike because he’s been the victim of sexual assault, chronic sexual harassment and abuse in Australia’s immigration prison camp. He can’t bear the suffering anymore.

He’s petrified of being moved from his supported accommodation back into the general area, and petrified of being returned to Iran and executed.

His refugee determination status process was an absolute joke. During the determination he was so unwell that he was unable to present his case.

All of this has been documented. It’s taken Eaten Fish a year to talk about his experience but now he wants people to know what’s going on.

The Australian government has been petitioned many times both from within Australia and internationally asking that Eaten Fish be brought to Australia for medical treatment.

Cartoonists Rights Network International is one such group, and writes:

‘It is with profound alarm and sadness that [we] learn that our friend and colleague, cartoonist Mr. Eaten Fish, currently held in an Australian refugee rendition camp in Papua New Guinea has decided to undertake a hunger strike… He is a man who has given up hope, cannot struggle any longer, cannot face the future that is being forced on him, and he would rather die than submit to the indignities of further inhuman treatment.’

Today the Greens stand, once again, against this unacceptable treatment of asylum seekers by this government, and the ALP. We urge you to transfer this critically ill young man to Australia, or risk another death.

I also take this opportunity to also say that we will never forget the young men who have died in our care on this death camp.

Reza Barati – 24, Iranian, died from head injuries after bashing by security guards

Hamid Kehazaei – 24, Iranian, died from medical neglect after a treatable foot infection

Faysal Ishak-Ahmed – 27, Sudanese, fell ill and died on Christmas Eve 2016, after seeking medical
treatment 13 times in 2 months

On the death of Faysal, Manus detainee Abdul Aziz Adams said ‘This system is designed to kill us one by one’.

Friends, this system shames us one by one.”

A former graphic designer and illustrator, Sen. Ludlam is a long-term critic of the government’s policy concerning detention of immigrants in off-shore camps. We and all working to secure Eaten Fish’s release and humane treatment in Australia thank him and his colleagues for their interest and vocal support.

 To Report a Cartoonist in Danger  Email Cartoonists Rights Network International

UPDATED: Global action in support of Eaten Fish

Share

As Eaten Fish endures the third week of his hunger strike in Australia’s detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, activists in the region and elsewhere have stepped up their efforts to end his ordeal.

The International Criminal Court will now consider whether or not Australia’s policy of detaining boat-borne migrants in off-shore camps is a crime against humanity after receiving a petition from the Global Legal Action Network and Stanford International Human Rights Clinic, The Guardian reports.

In addition to a letter to Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK, the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation have along with colleagues at France-Cartoons been encouraging Twitter users to contribute simple cartoon fish to from a “virtual shoal” in the hope that this show of solidarity and support will lift Eaten Fish’s spirits. If you wish to contribute, use the hashtag #AddAFish and be sure to copy in the Australian border force @DIBPAustralia

UPDATE 15/02/17: The story’s been picked up by HuffPo Australia, Mashable UK and the BBC World Service in the last 24 hrs.

UPDATE 18/02/17:  Further coverage by Good Magazine NZ and Independent Australian as well as further news in The Guardian that the Manus Island camp will be closed by the end of the year.

 The cross-org petition from IFEX, IFJ an MEAA is still online, calling upon the Australian government to offer safe haven to Eaten Fish and two other detainees.  The hashtag for that campaign is #Bring ThemHere

Poet and comic artist Jini Maxwell compiled a zine entitled Dear Eaten Fish to raise money for a refugee art project. It  has been placed online at the SaveEatenFish campaign’s site.

Eaten Fish himself continues to update followers on his condition via Facebook.  We remain in close contact with those advocating on his behalf in Australia.

 To Report a Cartoonist in Danger  Email Cartoonists Rights Network International

Global media orgs to AusGov: release Eaten Fish

Share

UPDATE: SIGN THE PETITION TO #BRINGTHEMHERE

CRNI joins with IFEX, Australia’s Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, the International Federation of Journalists (Asia-Pacific) and other freedom of expression organizations in once again calling upon the government of Australia to release a trio of Iranian nationals from their detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea most especially Eaten Fish, last year’s recipient of our Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award.

Cartoon by Rod Emmerson

The statement reads as follows:

Australia silencing expression through detention on Manus Island

To:

Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP
Prime Minister of Australia

Hon. Peter Dutton MP
Minister for Immigration and Border Protection

We, the undersigned, write as journalists, writers, cartoonists and performers to urge you to allow our colleagues Behrouz Boochani, Mehdi Savari, and Eaten Fish to be resettled in Australia.

All three men have sought protection as refugees from Iran and are currently detained at the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre in Papua New Guinea, which is operated on behalf of the Australian Government.

Well into the fourth year of their ordeal on Manus Island, and with delays and uncertainties in relation to any US resettlement deal, the three men remain in limbo. To varying degrees, the years of detention, has severely impacted their mental and physical health.

• Behrouz Boochani, 33, is a Kurdish journalist. He has worked as a journalist and editor for several Iranian newspapers. On February 17, 2013, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps ransacked his offices in Ilam and arrested 11 of Boochani’s colleagues. Six were imprisoned. He has courageously continued to work as a journalist while in detention, and is a regular contributor to publications in Australia and overseas, often reporting on the situation and conditions on Manus Island. He has been recognised as a refugee and we urge you to allow him to reside in Australia to resume his career as a journalist. Boochani is a Main Case of PEN International and has been recognised as a detained journalist by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

• Mehdi Savari, 31, is an Ahwazi performer. As an actor, he has worked with numerous theatre troupes in many cities and villages in Iran, and performed for audiences in open public places. He was also well-known as the host of a satirical children’s TV show before fleeing Iran. Mehdi is a person of short stature, and has met with severe discrimination over his life, which has been exacerbated by the conditions and his treatment on Manus Island over the last three years, and he continues to suffer a range of physical ailments and indignities, as well as regular bouts of depression and chronic pain. As he has also been recognised as a refugee, we urge you to facilitate his resettlement in Australia. We also refer you to a resolution passed by the International Federation of Actors congress in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in September calling for his release from detention.

• Eaten Fish, 24, is a cartoonist and artist who prefers to be known by his nom-de-plume. He has recently received Cartoonists’ Rights Network International’s 2016 award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning. His application for refugee status has not been assessed. Since he was detained at Manus Island, he has been diagnosed with mental illnesses, which have been compounded by his incarceration. We urge you to allow him to live in Australia until the final status of his claim can be determined.

As journalists, cartoonists, writers and performers, we are aware that the rights we enjoy are matched by a responsibility to challenge and confront tyranny and wrongdoing, to bear witness and uphold truth, and to reflect our society, even if sometimes unfavourably. We are privileged that in Australia we are able to pursue these ends without fear of persecution or threat to our personal liberty.

We believe that to continue to detain these three individuals without charge or trial undermines freedom of expression and the right to seek asylum. All three have courageously continued to practice their vocations on Manus Island despite their incarceration. We urge you to allow them to be resettled in Australia so that they can live, work and contribute to Australian society.

MEAA is joined in this letter by free expression groups from around the world. We urge you to give the cases for resettlement of these three men serious consideration.

UPDATE: SIGN THE PETITION TO #BRINGTHEMHERE

 To Report a Cartoonist in Danger  Email Cartoonists Rights Network International

Zunar in court: judge recuses self

Share
It’s been a few weeks since we reported on the status of Zunar, the Malaysian cartoonist currently challenging state-sponsored censorship on multiple fronts: a travel ban; multiple charges of sedition; and harassment by police and supporters of the government.

Zunar has provided an update on his latest court action, as follows:

High Court Judge, Justice Hanipah Farikullah today agreed to recuse herself from hearing my case, challenging the travel ban imposed by the Malaysian government. Fearing biased judgment, I filed a bid to remove the judge.

This is after I filed the application on the ground that she had previously decided to deny the challenge by two other activists who challenged their travel bans under the same law.

In her previous judgement, she said that it was not a constitutional right for a Malaysian to travel abroad, and that the immigration department has the rights to allow or deny the citizens traveling overseas

There was no objection from the AG Chamber on the application. The court will inform the date for the next session.

On 7th Dec 2016, I filed a leave application for a judicial review to challenge the Immigration Department’s decision barring me from travelling overseas. I named the Immigration Director-General, Home Minister and the government as respondents.

I am seeking a certiorari order to quash the travel restriction by the respondents, which was informed to me orally at KLIA airport on 17th October 2016. The order seeks to review that the travel ban violates the Article 5 (1), Article 8 and/or Article 9 of the Federal Constitution, therefore to declare that the ban is null, void and unconstitutional.

I am also seeking a mandamus order from the court to instruct the respondents to allow me to travel overseas without restrictions.

On 17th October 2016, I was at the KL International Airport leaving for Singapore to attend a forum when I was stopped by the immigration officers.

Last week, I was unable to travel to Switzerland for the launch of my exhibition in Morges due to the travel ban.

 To Report a Cartoonist in Danger  Email Cartoonists Rights Network International

Musa Kart: 100+ days in jail

Share

Turkish political cartoonist and Courage in Editorial Cartoon Award winner Musa Kart has spent his 100th day in custody after he and several colleagues from Cumhuriyet newspaper were arrested and charged with “crimes on behalf of the Fethullahist Terror Organisation and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)”.

The newspaper gave a detailed report on where things stood at the ninety day mark including the basis for the state’s case against the men, the difficulties their defence lawyers are encountering and the circumstances of their aggravated remand, including severely restricted access for visitors and denial of written communication via letter with the outside world which in Musa’s case also means he’s not permitted to draw.

A further piece takes each of the paper’s reports or articles that the government contend amount to terrorism and refutes each charge.   The list does not mention any particular cartoon of Musa’s that has prompted the accusations against him.  However it is worth remembering that his is a board member at the paper. Also he’s been individually and unsuccessfully prosecuted by President Recep Erdoğan twice in the past on charges of slander. It would seem the opportunity is being taken to silence a critic of long standing.

At a recent symposium on Freedom of Expression held in Istanbul, cartoons from around the world drawn in solidarity with Musa were displayed as a gesture of protest against President Erdoğan’s continuing efforts to suppress journalism and opposition politics in Turkey.

CRNI was just one of a number of organisations who condemned the Erdoğan regime’s calculated attempt to silence Cumhuriyet and its staff.  We call again for their acquittal and immediate release.

 To Report a Cartoonist in Danger  Email Cartoonists Rights Network International

Categories

Archives