The Sudanese human rights activist Abdul Aziz Muhamat fled Sudan in 2013 to seek asylum in a safe country. He flew to Indonesia and travelled onward by boat for Australia. His boat was intercepted by Australian authorities, who forcibly transferred him into the country’s offshore immigration system at the Lombrum naval base, on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. He was granted refugee status in early 2015, but remains on Manus Island, along with several hundred other men who were transferred there after arriving in Australian territory by boat and seeking asylum. He is one of the primary public voices among the men held on Manus Island and regularly speaks out on international news media. On February 13, 2019, he received the Martin Ennals Award – the leading award in human rights- for his struggle for refugee rights. Due to a special visa, he was able to leave the detention center on the Island and attend the award ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland for two weeks.
We invite you cordially to this public event with Abdul Aziz Muhamat in conversation with Prof. Dr. Bilgin Ayata (Seminar for Sociology) as part of the lecture series of the MSG Changing Societies of the Department of Social Sciences in cooperation with the Graduate School of Social Sciences.