Manus Island: A refugee in the Manus Island detention centre standoff collapsed with heart pain on Saturday night and waited more than four hours for Papua New Guinean authorities to take him to hospital.
The man is among 600 refugees and asylum seekers barricaded inside the mothballed detention centre, which closed on Tuesday.
The Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani told Guardian Australia one of his fellow countrymen collapsed at about 7.30pm.
“When he collapsed last night we were without power so everywhere was dark and the refugees became so scared,” he said. “It was a such hard night. Some of the refugees tried to look after him and we tried to help him. We had two phone numbers that immigration had earlier put up in case of emergency. We called those numbers but nobody answered.”
Boochani said the asylum seekers and refugees unsuccessfully tried to call police and the navy.
“Finally we were able to get a message to [International Health and Medical Services] who are working in East Lorengau camp but they said, ‘We cannot help you there while you are refusing to leave the prison camp,” he said.
“After two hours, a car belonging to the police mobile squad appeared and we stopped them and asked them to help. They said there is no ambulance here and you must wait until morning, then make your way to East Loreangau to receive medical treatment.
“Finally PNG immigration sent a car and picked up the sick refugee, after more than four-and-a-half hours since he collapsed.”
Boochani said the refugee was taken to Lorengau hospital half an hour away however they did not have adequate equipment to deal with his condition.
The man had a long history of heart pain and had seen two specialists in Port Moresby in February who had recommended treatment in Australia but that request had been denied.
Dr Barri Phatarfod from Doctors for Refugees expressed concerns about the man’s medical treatment at Lorengau hospital, saying no electrocardiogram heart monitoring or blood tests were carried out.
“It is impossible to adequately assess a potential myocardial infarct in the absence of both of these investigations,” she said. “If this occurred in Australia it would be grossly negligent.”
Six detainees have died on Manus Island — including one who was murdered — since it was reopened in 2012.
The Greens say the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, must be held to account for the standoff on Manus Island. Dutton, however, accused the Greens of stoking tensions on the island.
“The Australian government has stopped deaths at sea,” he said on Sunday. “If we allow people who sought to our country by boat to reside in Australia permanently, that will mean that the people smugglers are back in business.”
Related: UN attacks Australia’s ‘inhumane’ refugee-processing system
On Sunday, the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, confirmed she had restated her country’s offer to accept 150 refugees from among the almost 600 still holding out on Manus Island.
But the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said he would “consider” New Zealand’s offer to take refugees from the Manus Island detention centre only once the government has completed its refugee transfer arrangement with the United States.
