Deathscapes

Hamed Shamshiripour 15c - Abandoned on a Remote Island

Deathscapes

Abandoned on a Remote Island

Photos of Hamid Shamshiripour are stuck on the interior walls of a building at the East Lorengau Transit Centre. A table adorned with flowers, candles and biscuits is placed in front of the wall.

[imagecaption] Vigil for Hamed Shamshiripour, East Lorengau Transit Centre, 2017. [/imagecaption]

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‘The Hamed I knew was a kind person, capable of being a creative musician and someone with the capacity to make a valuable contribution to society. He was worthy of respect and dignity. He didn’t deserve to be neglected and abandoned the way he was.’

Behrouz Boochani, Kurdish journalist held on Manus

Hamed Shamshiripour was a 31 year old man from Iran. In August 2017 he was found hanged near the East Lorengau Transit Centre. He had once been transferred to Australia in 2015 for medical treatment but was sent back to Manus and left with little support. Seven months before his death it was reported that Hamed was found ‘hungry and homeless‘ in Lorengau following an acute mental health breakdown for which he was jailed. This was not the first time he was punished rather than provided with care. In the months before his death, a formal complaint was lodged by his friends asking why Hamed was not being provided with mental health support.


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This research was primarily supported under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme.

Partial funding was received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Partnership Development Grants scheme.

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