currently in the cyanide syrian civil war is seeing some of the worst fighting since the conflict began nearly seventy years ago the u.n. says hundreds of people have been killed or injured or displaced in the past week because saakashvili georgia's former president now ukrainian opposition leader appears to have been taken at gunpoint by armed men in kiev video posted on his facebook page shows people shows people in combat gear pointing guns at him and taking him outside post says the kidnappers were in a white minivan his whereabouts apparently on the c.d.'s leaders of south africa's ruling party a meeting to discuss president jacob zuma future they hope to finalize a deal for him to leave office before his term ends next year soon as under pressure to resign over corruption allegations african national congress leaders several run oppose us as the party leaders will decide on a swift transfer of power opposition leaders are now calling for a snap election of a part of

a to be dissolved here with more than that of the rest of the day's news in the news grid a little over twenty five minutes after the talk to al jazeera next on counting the past wild swings for stock markets look at what's going on and why it matters how women in twenty eighteen are still fighting but equal rights in the workplace bus us sheryl is defying expectations but will it make life more difficult prospect counting the cost at this time. you can. see. the movement who are in a half years iranian refugee to roost has been living in limbo on a remote specific talent he was sent there by australia after he tried to reach its shools by boat. for our. it is a prison it was a prison. even worse than

a prison because. the prisoners in or around the world nobody portion of them you really see it as torture yeah of course you know it is a systematic torture. johnny was a journalist in iran publishing stories promoting the kurdish language and culture after colleagues were arrested and accused of undermining the iranian state who chani feared he'd be next he fled aiming for australia. tens of thousands of others have gone before him thanks smugglers to take them across the sea from in the knees yet to the australian territory of christmas island between two thousand and nine and twenty thirty more than fifty thousand people have made similar journeys most of them ultimately were allowed to settle as refugees in australia but in australia people were alarmed at the growing number of refugees coming by boat they watched horrified as some boat sank or were smashed against rocks on trying to land in the

midst of an election campaign in july twenty thirty australia's government announced a radical policy. people who come by boat now have no prospect of being resettled in australia the rules have changed if you come here by boat you'll be sent to papa new guinea australia's government had done a deal with papua new guinea once it's colony but now an independent country in exchange for billions of dollars p.m.g. would accommodate refugees who try to reach australia until at the very least their claims to be refugees were decided combined with australia's navy turning back boats at sea the deportation policy was about to terence if settlement in australia was denied to anyone arriving as australia's government saw it illegally by boat who in future would try the chinese boat was see when the new policy was announced it arrived on christmas island four days later on the chinese thirtieth birthday four weeks later he was deported to mount

a silent in papua new guinea he's been there ever since for nearly five years and it's from a man of silent that he talks to al-jazeera. for johnny thank you very much for talking to al-jazeera can we start with why you left iran back in twenty thirteen you know i fell in trouble with the government so. i were i hide myself or both more than amongst. case on friend. after that. i have a fifth some information that they are going to meet and they have some plans to do some action on me so i decided to leave it on so. i. came to a trachea. australia's government says its policy was and is necessary to deter

what it's called illegal immigration it is question the motives of those arriving by boat asking why they didn't claim asylum in countries they travel through before getting on boats to australia it is suggested that those who come by boat are economic migrants rather than refugees genuinely fleeing persecution that their refusal to accept a permanent life in papua new guinea or on the tiny island nation of nuru shows that their real aim is and always was life in a wealthy developed country not just a safe one it says the refugees life or exaggerate with stories of poor conditions in australian run the tension centers on malice and the root ultimately australia's government says tough policies against uncontrolled migration unnecessary to allow generosity towards refugees through a managed process bistro in support record numbers of people coming through the migration program and humanitarian program when governments have proper control of the process i don't want to give up their process and the right to decide who comes

to our country to people smugglers so you left iran and you decided to go to australia yeah i don't want to do that journey you know i float in the new year i found the smuggler that he told me that i am going to send you why did you not stay in indonesia you were out of iran yet you were not going to be perceived by authorities there why not stay in indonesia at that point the first place you got to apply for asylum through the u.n. h.c.r. some of the refugees they were arrested by police. and they deported them and they've been asked them question. just. deported them because so many refugees on that. so the government wanted to you know the thought of them went back to iran and they send them back to iran so you decided it wasn't safe to be an engineer you know what i really was not safe. i

decided to change it took about how much you pay for that journey i pay about five thousand dollars. on the first. forty eight hours. sunk and i found myself on the ocean. that was very. and a swamp for a vote that. would that was on the ocean on the water. after that. ship came there. fishman took me from the water. after that i was on the ship for about two days and they called the police and police came you know they put me in the. i was in the jail for the night after that. and they went

to. after two weeks it started to come to a straight again so that was a very big decision. because the journey on the ocean is very danielle it sounds so many people today so i experience said i want to experience that then yet some of the refugees they don't know that one year but i want to experience so in second time when i started to come through the trailer it's mean that i didn't feel. safe in indonesia and i thought that i must go to a strange one i must you know leave this country because it was not safe for me and you landed on christmas island on the twenty third of july twenty third team that was four days after australia's government changed their policy the rules have

changed how did they tell you that news would be coming to us you know i didn't know that was really a make believe i was on the ocean because i. our boat gets lost for a week and we came to australia on sixteen july. and was supposed to arrive to christmas island after two days what our boat get lost and we were lost for a week and when we arrived to a stranger was twenty three july exactly my birthday. when we arrived there they put us in a place like some crazy place and they didn't allow us to call our family we were there for about twenty day. after twenty may they call they just told us that you must go to. hop on your uni so for

twenty days i thought that i arrived in australia as a. free country so i didn't know that after twenty days they'd say. we are going to examine your tall man sign on and you must live there. or you will buy per your plan please do you understand why australia's government felt they needed to introduce this tough policy. i can understand you know i have been thinking a lot of these for more than forty years and they cannot understand why they are you know torturing people. they say australia's government more than fifty thousand people came just before you more boats were coming all the time as you say and you almost experienced more than a thousand people drowned at sea that had to stop and this policy has stopped that

people no longer come by boat so while every sympathy for you in your situation can you understand the need for the broader policy now i can understand because i think that sending people to the island like not on mondays dine on you know even pressure on the most complex radio but it's a main lobby and then thought yeah damn main reason was that they then backed the boat to indonesia a slightly some at sea and they push them away so the people in indonesia or the refugees in indonesia or in the middle east or their countries they are not watching us when we get freedom they come to a stranger the main reason is that they then man the boat. the boat than the people. the refugees they think if we go to. we will lose our money and we will. have

a very risky journey and maybe we arrive there. and they send us back so the main reason is that the main reason is not them they send people to. a month. do you understand why australia feels it needs to control its borders a former prime minister of australia famously said that we will decide who comes to our country and the manner in which they come that was john howard back in two thousand and one that is a very reasonable thing to say isn't it in order to be an open country in order to have high levels of immigration as australia does it needs to know that it is controlling its borders that's fair isn't it you know i am not in a position to make this isn't always through your heart or give advice to them you know i am a refugee so i don't think i've worked through this that was three years trying to

protect its borders the main important thing is i myself and these people that we have been in the prison camp in this island for more than forty years for their first three years on madness the refugees were kept in what australia's government called a processing center half an hour away from the island's main town with high fences and god's refugees weren't allowed out nor visitors in those inside considered it a prison in twenty sixteen happy new guinea's opposition leader took a case to the country supremes court arguing that the refugees detention was illegal under the constitution the court agreed and to comply with the ruling the government made the center an open facility refugees still live there who could come and go freely in october twenty seventh seen the sense it was completely shut down guards medical and support staff left power and water supplies were

disconnected but most refugees refused to leave for three weeks they lived in the former prison surviving on rain water and food. smuggled in by sympathetic locals. no money for. they are ready for the refugees the siege was a protest a chance to make a stand but in late november papua new guinea and police a victim by force some refugees were hit with sticks and dragged on to buses and there are those barriers that was your home for forty years since and has to know it is very a strange feeling when. what he's played australia is government always said it was never a person it was a regional processing center what was it to you for. it is a prison it was a prison you know their policy was to create hate you know they were happy that people being man was free zone helped

australia to forget those things so the established this policy and they were running the prison camp late these are interesting thing i would like to say once they put a request and i asked them to give me i'm a map australia mark i want to put me in the war because of my worth understanding no. you cannot have with radium i can't go to australia because yeah that's the i don't want to go through you're just saying one four hundred they would let you. in the wrong me what was life like in the three weeks off with when you were refusing to leave really as a protest more yeah i think yes you know that was one of their own and you know i myself i experienced that because i was born in war. and was in loco war zone but in some ways we were happy. because we were all thought.

the systematic torture we were in the older officers who were not there. you know there were there was a little taunt to me you were in charge of your own lives and yeah yeah we were trying our of our life during the siege and the of action he tweeted in fact ever since being sent to mount a speech on his campaign relentlessly against the policy that sent him there and has kept him there he's kept up his journalism using mobile phone credit paid for by sympathetic or straightly and he tweets prolifically he writes an online newspaper column in the guardian which in november one him an amnesty international media awards but johnny has even shot a film on his phone edited by a dutch director the resulting movie about life a man of silence has been shown at film festivals around the world he's now working on writing a play and a book they were very successful you have become prolific you have

a column in the guardian newspaper your tweets are read by many thousands of people viewed a regular interviews in the australian and global media including many times on al-jazeera do you feel more a journalist or a refugee i don't think about myself you know as a german news story i feel that i am human i am human and them fighting for humanity i am fighting for these people you know the people that i feel they've suffering and they know them for a long time i know them you know i am living with the refugees and they hear their stories i know their stories so it is very important for me but on the first day i know that i understand i am thinking like this that it is my duty as a journalist it is my mission. it is my duty to work on this

issue. it is my duty to tell through to people and all saw important thing is that i am working to record history of this policy record the history of this prison camp for history for the next generation the deals australia reached with papua new guinea and the room where the refugees would stay in those countries permanently after the stories of persecution were confirmed australia's government says if refugees were genuine they'd happily accept life in any country why not take the option on the table which is resettlement in pop when you get you know first is that we didn't come and second is that. doesn't. fit to protect the refugees and accept the refugees and the refugees. and they are sure that if they accept to leave. they will lose everything they

won't have any clear future in peace but millions of papua new guinea and have clear futures they live here yes country is not at war why not stay here you're not going to be persecuted here in our. country. tribal culture. we. poor economy and our store is not safe for the refugees so they're refugees cannot accept to live in our saw they are saying if you accept. after eight years we will give you a passport. so. how can we accept that some people may have families but people wanting this will think this is a man who was fleeing for his life yet if fled iran because his life was in danger your life is not in imminent danger here why not accept that and stay

a lot of people. were attacked by the. people. why because you know the. people are very kind people but they cannot accept they cannot accept that they are living in a poor condition the government accept some people on try to protect them they cannot accept that. believe that the refugees cannot live in peace. you know some of the refugees. are really try to live in peace and where they couldn't so because of you know cultural reasons because of economy crees and because of you know so many reasons because it is not safe country for the refugees because their government cannot protect them they cannot start. you know simple life in peace and it is

and that you know of that but you haven't tried have you you haven't tried it you saying you could you say you couldn't get out early in time when you can if you haven't tried it you know you're asking a question from me that. if you asked the. government. they and so you you know in my way. they are i agree that. they come up arcs of the refugees and they are not saying that they we want to accept refugees neither papua new guinea's prime minister nor is immigration minister responded to requests for an interview but another government minister speaking in a personal capacity did talk he says life in p. and g. is possible for refugees who try to make it work but if they won't it's not his country to force them what they do want is resettlement in a country that they feel that they will have

a proper chance of integrating into and i don't believe that's possible that's for a stranger to sort out that's that's a strange problem this train needs to resolve that quickly it's not a pup a new problem a stray is created an issue to solve do you want them not really we really don't need them simple or man aside into most locals think it's time the refugees moved on which he now is for an obvious almost five years. i would have thought by now you know so that's that's that's my view i question is did he make hang loose you know if they make freeform the suicide bombing and so like that it's where they had industry. they may do something west like we used to hear t.v. and radio suicide bombing or foreseeable so that they considered terrorists. much attention to. the issue over there but that's what it is seeing on the street

. and then make this thing be careful just be careful. australia has done deals with other countries to take refugees during his final days in office president obama agreed to settle as many as twelve hundred fifty of australia's refugees in the united states president trump has called that a dumb deal but has said reluctantly honor it but an offer from new zealand to resettle others has been rejected by australia's government which says as new zealanders have the right to settle in australia refugees would use new zealand as a back door into australia going back to the broader policy australia's government says rightly that there are millions of refugees around the world needing resettlement a year when the other men here any more deserving than any of them of resettlement in a rich country like australia what makes you any more deserving than someone stuck

in a refugee camp in lebanon for example i know nothing to them. crisis in the war but when we arrived to a stranger was lovely when we arrived to australia there was no i.c.'s when we arrived to australia. there were still many millions of earth is not even that yet you know it's not mean that. it was through no government has this right to porch or ours is the way you see it as tojo's people in a very strong way to feel tortured yeah it is a port sure you know we have been on the torture scene they are torturing us you know we have been on the porch we have been under a systematic torture you've been fed you've been housed nugget how is that you know six people already know right. six people are leaving this polythene this prison camp six people six young people one of them killed by the.

staff four of them they because of medical next leg at least to kill themselves you how that was. tortured them for a long time. after that they left them. with protection. with a protection and they and i was so. suspicious way. still we don't know that they killed them or they killed. but you know. they those guys you know they were with psychological illness for a long time and his phone call with the american president australia's prime minister malcolm turnbull described most of the refugees here as economic migrants you obviously now know them all quite well is he right are you and some of the others economic migrants rather than genuinely genuinely fleeing persecute you know

. that was stolen government. in the process people. you know by international. more than ninety person off the people. of a few. but you got money all of you you paid five thousand dollars to get on a boat to christmas island and then refuse not mean that morris to the poor all the while you just desperately non-meat yeah it's not mean then you are a poor you know. the poor what are your hopes for your future you know i hope. so many putting australia are fighting for our own they'll stop or think. i'll. go among. make solution

a real solution. let us go. with johnny thank you very much thank you for talking to others see. if. you stand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world. al-jazeera. what makes this moment this era we're living through so unique

this is really an attack on truth itself is a lot of misunderstanding a distortion of what free speech is supposed to be about the context it's hugely important we have a right to publish if you have a duty to be offensive or provokes it's all about otherwise people do. rebuilding iraq. for one hundred billion dollars.