23 Aug 2013

Video message by asylum seekers on Manus

6:34 am on 23 August 2013

The Australian Immigration Department has issued a three-minute video in which asylum seekers on Manus Island begged others not to what they did.

AAP reports the video shows six Iranian men who were sent to Papua New Guinea under the federal government's resettlement plan. They are speaking in their native language of Farsi and the video is subtitled.

Their faces are blurred out but their voices clear as they describe their ordeals.

"Please, I'm asking people, it's a big mistake, please don't take this journey," one man says.

Another man describes how people smugglers promised him $10,000 on arrival in Australia, but instead took him and other refugees to a small hut in a jungle.

There they were locked up with no proper food or water, and had to go to the toilet in plastic bags.

Immigration Minister Tony Burke said the video reflects the reality of people smuggling:

"What we have in that footage is people who have been customers of people smugglers saying that the product they paid for has indeed been taken away," he said in Sydney.

He said the men interviewed were offered no incentive and were not prompted or told what to say.

AAP reports the video will be put on the department's website. It will also be distributed in different languages.

Mr Burke also said another plane of adult male asylum seekers landed on Manus Island on Thursday. An Iranian asylum seeker had left Christmas Island to return home, he added.