Iranian Kurd Behrouz Boochani,asylum seeker on Manus wins Australian literature prize

A Kurdish asylum seeker has won one of the most important Australian literature prizes, the Victorian Prize for Literature.

However, Iranian Kurd  Behrouz Boochani was unable to accept the award personally in Melbourne because he is being kept on Manus Island.

Boochani has been living on Manus Island since 2013 and, like all detainees, is not allowed to leave.

In July 2013, his boat, which held 75 asylum seekers, was intercepted by the Australian Navy and he was transferred to the Manus Island detention centre.

Behrouz Boochani won the award, which comes with a monetary prize of 100,000 Australian dollars (approximately $73,000), for his book No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison. It was written in Farsi while he was held in the now-closed detention centre on the island.

It comprises of text messages sent mostly through WhatsApp to his translator.

The book also won the Non-Fiction Prize, worth 25,000 Australian dollars (approximately $18,000)