Noor Islam, a 21-year-old Rohingya asylum-seeker, walked into a Commonwealth Bank just outside Melbourne, Australia, and allegedly doused himself in petrol before lighting himself on fire. Moments later, the petrol canister exploded, injuring 26 other people, including several children.
Six people were seriously burned, and two remain in critical condition.
Witnesses say Islam had already been in the bank that earlier that morning and had been heard arguing with the staff over his financial issues.
Islam reportedly arrived in Australia as an unaccompanied minor in 2013 and had spent time in immigration detention on Christmas Island and Weipa before settling in Springvale, 23 kilometers outside Melbourne, where he moved into a house with several other asylum seekers from Myanmar.
Habib Habib, the president of the Australian Burmese Rohingya Organisation, told the Guardian that it was Islam’s concern for his mother and sister, who are still living in Myanmar’s turbulent Rakhine State, that drove him to take such drastic action.
Islam’s housemates told Habib that Islam’s visa did not permit him to work in Australia. Nonetheless, Islam was trying to send money back to Myanmar to pay for his sister’s medical treatment.
After several days without receiving confirmation that funds he had send through the Australian Department of Human Services had reached his family, he went to the bank to sort out the problem. It was after the bank’s staff failed to rectify the situation that Islam returned with the petrol canister, according to Habib.
The Herald Sun has reported that Islam had no reported mental health issues. However, Habib told the Guardian:
“He was also struggling mentally, and after running around for a couple of days and being back at the bank yet again we believe he was not thinking. I have been told he might have poured petrol on himself and set fire to himself deliberately and would not have been thinking anyone could be harmed but himself.”
Habib said Islam’s anxiety was compounded by the fact that he was not included among thousands of asylum seekers in Australia who had received letters from the immigration department offering eligibility to apply for temporary protection visas. His housemates said he feared he would be sent back to Myanmar or to a Pacific island.
“Because of his religion he did not have citizenship in Burma and like about 40,000 other Burmese in Australia he was in legal limbo here,” Habib said.
Islam is now under police guard in a Melbourne hospital.
Victoria’s premier Andrew Daniels has urged the public “to look at this as an isolated act, because that is exactly what it is”.
“It is not a commentary, and it oughtn’t to be used as a political weapon by anybody who finds fault with any of the policy settings we have at the moment. This is tragedy, nothing more, nothing less.”
A detailed account of Friday’s events can be found here.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found here. In Myanmar, a range of free counselling services provided by the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Yangon can be reached at 09509440408003, 09401638420, 09421181246, or 09253258821.
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