Papua New Guinea (PNG) yesterday said it would close an Australian immigration center on a northern island after its Supreme Court ruled it unlawful, but Australia ruled out accepting more than 800 asylum seekers detained there.
Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton stressed the success of Australia’s hardline policy that has been strongly criticized by the UN and human rights agencies.
Under Australian law, anyone intercepted trying to reach the country by boat is sent for processing at camps on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru or to Manus Island off Papua New Guinea. They are never eligible to be resettled in Australia.
Photo: EPA
Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said the detention center would close after the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea on Tuesday ruled that the detentions breached the country’s constitution and would have to stop.
Dutton said that it was still government policy that asylum seekers sent to offshore detention centers would never be resettled in Australia.
“As I have said, and as the Australian government has consistently acted, we will work with our PNG partners to address the issues raised by the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea,” Dutton said in a statement after the announcement.
O’Neill said he would ask Australia to make arrangements for the asylum seekers held on Manus Island, adding that they would be able to stay in Papua New Guinea if they wanted.
A spokesperson for Dutton did not immediately respond for requests for comment on the closure, but Dutton said in Melbourne that the Manus detainees could return home or go to another country willing to accept them.
The detainees on Manus and Nauru are mostly refugees fleeing violence in the Middle East, Afghanistan and South Asia.
While Australia maintains its hardline stance, a second case concerning the fate of the detainees on Manus is set to be heard by the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea later this week.
Lawyers acting on behalf of nearly all the Manus Island detainees are to argue that they should be taken to Australia and be compensated for being held in custody.
The detention center on Nauru houses about 500 people and has been widely criticized by the UN and human rights agencies for harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse.
Against such a backdrop, many of the detainees have self-harmed, with Dutton yesterday confirming that a 23-year-old man from Iran had set himself on fire on Nauru.
Dutton said the man was to be evacuated from Nauru later yesterday.
Broadspectrum Ltd, which runs the detention centers on Manus and Nauru, declined to comment.
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