Image: Facebook post by Walid Zazai

A new book Manus Days – The Untold Story of Manus Island has revealed a new side to the controversial island and its detention centre.

Michael Coates worked as a Safety & Security Advisor at the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre for more than two and a half years and has now shared his perspective on what conditions are really like.

The ex-soldier found himself at the epicentre of Operation Sovereign Borders based in a place few have been but everybody has an opinion.

Michael joined Steve Price, describing the life ‘asylum seekers’ are actually living on the island.

“My biggest experience I talk about were the more troublesome characters there and a lot of them being Iranians from the middle class they, they were actually quite wealthy.

“With a lot of them, it was more a case of escaping the consequences of their own actions. A lot of the time they were fleeing drug dealers or gambling debts they owed money to.”

“I wouldn’t call them inmates for a start, we call them transferees. Inmates implies they were imprisoned and locked up and it’s honestly not the case.

“There was no real control of their day to day movements.”

Click PLAY below for the full interview