Threats against Nauru refugees who are not taking part in protests
Nauru's Justice Minister has revealed that
refugees who do not wish to participate in unlawful protests are
being threatened by other
refugees.
David Adeang said physical threats have
been made to many refugees and their children who "simply want to
enjoy a peaceful life on Nauru", including several who are employed
by the Government.
At least one refugee has been moved from
his accommodation to an undisclosed location for his safety after
he was visited by four other refugees who threatened him physically
if he did not take part in protest activity and did not quit his
job.
"It should be known that most refugees
living on Nauru are peaceful and law-abiding, but as we saw with
the riots in 2013 when the processing centre was set on fire, and
as we have seen over the past few days of civil disobedience, some
have a blatant disregard for the law," he
said.
Mr Adeang said many refugees wanted
nothing to do with the protests and had good jobs working in both
the private and public sectors.
"We are really talking about a small group
of thugs who are willing to resort to criminal behaviour in order
to cause unrest, as they attempt to influence the Australian
Government."
He said it was disgraceful that refugee
activist groups in Australia and the Australian Greens continued to
spread untruths about the current situation and were "revelling in
the unrest".
"This behaviour should be condemned by
every group and they should be advising refugees, with whom they
are in regular contact, to abide by our
laws.
"They should not be using these refugees
as pawns in their political
game."
Police are currently investigating the
threats.