Detainee EML019: My escape from Manus

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Jaivet Ealom is a Rohingya Muslim from Rakhine state where his freedoms were severely restricted by the ruling Buddhist majority. So when violent religious and ethnic clashes broke out in 2012, Jaivet was forced to flee. Now seeking asylum, he boarded a boat to Australia, but while at sea Australia’s policy changed and he and hundreds of others were transferred to Manus, a heavily-guarded island detention centre on Papua New Guinea. There he endured what the UN described as ‘inhumane’ conditions with no end date in sight. Years like this pushed him to the brink more than once. Then he remembered the many tricks and techniques he’d seen on Prison Break and tried to test this fiction against his own bleak reality. But how to get off a heavily-guarded tropical island? After months of meticulous planning he made an audacious dash for it. Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Edgar Maddicott (Photo: Jaivet Ealom’s ID pass. Credit: Jaivet Ealom)