PNG foreign minister insists there is ‘no intention to deviate’ from agreement after unrest but acknowledges problems

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, headed to Papua New Guinea on Friday to discuss Manus Island violence and refugee resettlement and to iron out what the PNG foreign minister, Rimbink Pato, describes as “bumps” in an asylum policy partnership that is still intact.

Pato told Guardian Australia the agreement signed between PNG and the former Rudd government in August 2013, in which PNG pledges to resettle all genuine refugees among the asylum seekers sent to Manus “in accordance with the refugee convention” remained intact and unaffected by the recent violent clashes on the island.

“We have no intention to deviate from its terms,” he said.

He said PNG was “committed to the partnership” with Australia. It had initially allowed asylum seekers to be transferred for one year from the time it was signed in August 2013 but had now been extended to apply for a second year, he said.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Amnesty International have criticised slow processing and unresolved resettlement arrangements at the detention centre on Manus, and a woman who worked there helping to assess refugee claims up until the recent violent clashes has said asylum seekers’ inability to get clear answers about processing and resettlement contributed to the escalating tensions.

Pato said there were issues regarding the Manus Island centre and resettlement arrangements to iron out with Morrison when the pair meet on Friday night.

“There are issues we will address with the Australian government. Partnerships have their fair share of bumps and some problems have occurred. Appropriate action will be taken with the Australian government,” he said.

Pato said the PNG cabinet had decided to appoint a panel of eminent people to develop the “policy framework” for resettling refugees. The framework would then have to be approved by the government. Departments were working on selecting the panel, but it had not yet begun work.

“PNG is coming to this for the first time in its history. We want to make sure we get it right. We want to be a regional leader,” he said.

Morrison has said the original MOU had been “little more than a blank sheet of paper” with the incoming government forced to negotiate all the details.

Guardian Australia understands several cases on Manus are now at “draft decision” level, and Australia is urgently finishing more permanent accommodation, closer to the township of East Lorengau, with the intention of resettling people there for the forseeable future, while long-term resettlement arrangements are negotiated.

Former Manus employee Liz Thompson said uncertainty about resettlement had contributed to the violence because “what they realised – you know what they wanted was not just the interviews and a process, something to feel better about, something to be involved in ... they want to know where they are going”.

Australia has appointed former secretary of the Attorney General’s Department, Robert Cornall, to investigate the violence at the Manus Island detention centre last week, during which one asylum seeker, Reza Barati, was killed and several were seriously injured.

In a statement after Reza Barati’s death, the UNHCR said there were “significant shortcomings in the legal framework for receiving and processing asylum seekers from Australia … including lack of national capacity and expertise in processing, and poor physical conditions. We also highlighted that detention practices are harmful to the physical and psychosocial wellbeing of transferees, particularly families and children.”

Morrison has been criticised after he had to revise his account of where the events took place, eventually conceding that most happened inside the perimeter of the centre.

A preliminary Papua New Guinea police report obtained by the PNG Post Courier found Barati had died from “multiple head injuries” and his death could have been caused by a “heavy object”.