Samad Abdul was 23 when he arrived in Australia by boat seeking asylum.
He was on one of the first planes to Manus Island after Kevin Rudd’s 2013 declaration that boat-borne asylum seekers would never settle in Australia. He has been held in PNG ever since, first in the Manus Island detention centre, then in Lorengau and now in Port Moresby – free to come and go from the hostel where he lives, but not to leave the country.
The persecution he faced in his home in Quetta, Pakistan, has been formally recognised. He has a “well-founded fear of being persecuted” in his homeland. He cannot be returned there and Australia has a legal obligation to protect him.
Abdul is now 35.
“How long should we wait? We need to know a solution,” he says.