Ali Dorani/ Mr. Eaten Fish

Ali Dorani/ Mr. Eaten Fish is an award-winning cartoonist from Iran. He spent five years in an Australian offshore detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG) where he started documenting life inside the detention centre, and becam ea political cartoonist. 

Dorani left Iran in June 2013, arriving on Christmas Island in August on 23rd July the same year, where he sought asylum. He took the pen name, Mr. Eaten Fish and continued using it in his cartoons. Ali was transferred to Manus Island and detained there in January 2014.

While living on Manus Island, Dorani’s cartoons documented the harsh conditions and ill treatment of asylum seekers and refugees in the Australian refugee detention centres, drawing international attention to the situation. Ali’s cartoons have become symbolic images of life on Manus Island.

Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI), other human rights organisations, and many internationally renowned cartoonists advocated intensively for Dorani’s release. In 2016, CRNI awarded him the ‘Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award’ for chronicling of the unspeakable abuses in the Manus Island detention camp.

In December 2017, Ali Dorani left the PNG detention centre and arrived in Stavanger, Norway as the city’s ICORN resident. During and after his ICORN residency, Dorani has continued cartooning and has been involved in numerous local, national, and international projects and initiatives.