A refugee being held on Manus Island has described the anguish of feeling like “I can be traded for anything” after studying a conversation between Malcolm Turnbull and Donald Trump.

Imran Mohammad, who has been in offshore detention for almost four years, cried after reading a leaked transcript of the two leaders discussing a people-swap deal, feeling as if he were “just a product”.

“I am just a human being and there is no need to play with my life. All I want is to respect and love others and be loved and respected in return,” he said on Friday in a statement released by the Human Rights Law Centre.

“All I need is a sense of belonging to a safe country so that I can live a life that every human deserves.”

During the January phone call, revealed in full by the Washington Post, the prime minister corralled the new president into endorsing the refugee deal.