Condemned asylum seeker wins Australia's richest literary award

Behrouz Buchani, whose debut book won the $ 25,000 no-profit award and the Victorian literature award of $100,000, is not allowed to enter Australia.

The Kurdish writer is a asylum seeker who has been held in the Manus Islands in New Guinea for about six years, first behind the wire of Australia's offshore detention center, and then in alternative housing on the island.

Now his “book No Freed But the Mountains”, composed within the detention center, has been recognised by the same government of the same country that banned it and shut it down.

“ said he before the top prize was declared. I really don't know what to say. Of course, I didn't write the book just to win a prize. The main goal was for people in Australia and around the world to understand deeply how this system has tortured innocent people in Manus and Nauru systematically for almost six years. I hope this award will bring more attention to our situation, will bring change and end these barbarous policies”.

To keep a asylum seekers in prison at sea to gain such a high price “e shames the Australian government”He said.

To accept the prize in his name was his translator, Omid Tophighian, who worked with the interpreter Moones Mansuub to translate Boocani's text into English.