SYDNEY, Australia — Australia moved forward with plans to close its Manus Island detention center in Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, cutting off access to food, water and electricity as more than 600 refugees and asylum seekers resisted relocation to a nearby city, where they said they would be attacked.

“We are extremely frightened and anxious at the moment,” said Imran Mohammad, 23, a Rohingya migrant from Myanmar, who was detained on Manus after trying to reach Australia by boat. “We are not safe and not welcomed into the local community. If we stay at the center we are at risk, and if we leave, we will be in danger.”



Tensions over the fate of the refugees on Manus have grown since the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea agreed in April to close the site by Oct. 31.

As the camp was set to close, the migrants — some of whom have waited four years to be resettled — said they were safer at the detention center than they would be in Lorengau, a city close by on the island.