A Papua New Guinea politician is demanding that Australia build and staff a new hospital to treat immigrants trapped in the Manus Island detention center.

This comes after last week's death of Sudanese asylum-seeker Faysal Ishak Ahmed.  The 27-year old sought help at the center's clinic after he suffered a seizure, but was allegedly turned away by clinic workers; this is despite having a history of health problems.  Eventually, Ahmed had to be transferred to hospital in Brisbane, where he died.  Mr. Ahmed is the fourth person from the Manus Island detention to die.

"We really find it hard to believe that this is going on in this day and age in this country," said Ronny Knight is the MP for PNG's Manus district, who says Australia's original plans for the detention center included a hospital.  "Why don't they just spend some money and upgrade the local hospital and staff it properly and bring it to the stage it was when the Australian navy was there?"

He continued, "Is it cheaper for them to just until (it) gets to the position where they have to medivac a person for hundreds of thousands of Kina, than have a proper staff hospital that can take care of them on the spot?"

Mr. Kina now believes that the deal to send Manus Island asylum seekers to the US won't happen:  "Now I can see that's probably just more propaganda to keep people placid and just while the time away," he said to the ABC.