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600 people are starving on Manus Island. Here's how you can help in less than 30 seconds.

On an island directly north of Sydney, on the east of Papua New Guinea, 600 men are starving.

These 600 men arrived by boat on Australia’s doorstep, having fled famine, war or persecution, and were sent to an offshore detention centre, where some have spent more than four years of their lives.

The world they are currently living in is likely worse than the one they desperately sought to escape.

LISTEN: Here is exactly what you need to know about what is happening on Manus Island. Post continues… 

These men have been living for nine days in a centre with no electricity, no running water, no food and no medicine. Their toilets are overflowing. Their mental health is deteriorating.

For a moment, let’s put the politics aside.

These are 600 human beings, with families and friends and ambitions and fears and flaws and talents and anxieties and hopes. Their ‘crime’ was being born into a circumstance they did not create. And now – without intervention – these men could die.

Forget ethics, legally these men are our responsibility. We know that. Every moment of their suffering, is Australia’s doing.

If you care about these men and their safety, there is one thing you can do, right now, which will take less than 30 seconds.

Call this number: 02 6277 7700, between the hours of 8:30am to 5:30pm Eastern states time.

It will connect you to the Prime Minister’s Office.

All you need to say is: “I’m concerned about what is happening on Manus Island.” They might ask where you are from, and for your first name.

That’s it.

They will note your concern, and add it to a running register.

These 600 men have been abandoned, perhaps not because of our malevolence, but because of our apathy.

We look back on history, at the Khmer Rouge, or the Nazis, or the Soviet Russians, and we ask; how did people let that happen?

We do not want our grandchildren to be looking at us, asking exactly the same question.

If you want to know what exactly is happening on Manus Island, and how it got to this point, read about it here.

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