Man on Manus Island allegedly sets himself on fire

A 31-year-old Indian man set himself on fire on Manus Island after being denied medical care, refugees on the island say.

The man reportedly locked himself inside his room on Friday, cut himself and lit the blaze, the latest incident in a growing mental health crisis on the island.

"He has been suffering with severe health issues and his medical treatment has been denied for a long time," refugee Shamindan Kanapadhi said on Twitter.

"Today he went to PIH clinic [for] help but been turned back with no help. He was very stressed and anguished he cut himself and set himself on fire in room [sic]."

"The doctors refused to talk with him or provide medical treatment for him," added fellow refugee Behrouz Boochani, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

"They refused to accept him and they told him they will see him in the next few weeks. That's why he got angry... he went back inside camp and he burned his room."

Video shot by refugees shows smoke and flames billowing from the side of a building. The man's friends and security guards broke down the door and rescued him from the blaze.

"The security guards arrived to break the door and couldn't [so] I helped with some other guys and we broke the door, took him from inside," Manjeet Singh, who lives with the man, told the Guardian Australia.

"When I see him he can't speak, [his] face, forehead, left cheek, right cheek, very badly burned.

"I'm not sure how he did [the] fire because I was outside with security. The whole thing was five, 10 minutes."

He is the second person on the island to set himself on fire in two weeks after a Somali man set himself alight at the East Lorengau camp. According to advocacy group Refugee Action Collective, there have been more than 95 acts of self-harm and suicide attempts since Australia's federal election.

"Every day we wake up with some self-harm or suicide attempt," Boochani said.

Refugee Action Collective spokesperson Ian Rintoul said the situation on Manus Island was "an emergency" and "a vortex of despair" and called on Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to "stop playing games with the lives of the people he's kept imprisoned on Manus and Nauru".

"The people most seriously at risk need to be brought to Australia for the care they need," he said.

"[Mr Dutton] should stop talking about repealing the Medevac Bill and start talking about how he's going to get the people who need medical help to Australia where they can get both the help and protection that they need.

ABC contacted Australia's Department of Home Affairs for comment. It said the case was "a matter for the Government of PNG".

Newshub.