Louise Yaxley reported this story on Wednesday, April 27, 2016 08:00:00

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court has ruled that 850 men are being illegally detained on Manus Island but it's still not clear what will happen to them now.



Their lawyer says the refugees and asylum seekers are jubilant at the decision, but nervous about where they will eventually be sent.



Political Correspondent Louise Yaxley reports



LOUISE YAXLEY: Lawyer Loani Henao says both governments have to accept the unanimous ruling.



LOANI HENAO: The governments of Papua New Guinea in particular and that of Australia must take immediate steps to remove the unconstitutionally set up detention centre on Manus Island.



LOUISE YAXLEY: The Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told Sky Australia's border polices remain unchanged.



PETER DUTTON: This decision doesn't bind the Australian Government. It's a decision in the Supreme Court of PNG, so it is an issue for the PNG government to contemplate.



But we've been very clear these people will not be coming to Australia.



LOUISE YAXLEY: Lecturer in international law at the Australian National University Kevin Boreham says Australia will have to deal with this ruling and he notes no third country has been willing to accept these people.



KEVIN BOREHAM: The problem clearly is that they want to find a third country that is sufficiently unattractive that it won't constitute another lure for people to come to Australia.



So there is going to have to be a compromise and the compromise is clearly going to include some of these people coming to Australia.



But this is going to take a long time to work out and it's clearly going to be the other side of the election.



I don't want to sound cynical but I would expect the action to be something between us and PNG which would cosmetically seem to respond to the court's decision, and then there would be a further round of legal wrangling while what actually happened was reconciled with what the court had ordered.



LOUISE YAXLEY: So the impact for these 850 men could be that they feel that they have had a victory but they are still left in limbo?



KEVIN BOREHAM: I think that's very likely, at least in the medium term. But whoever wins the election is going to have to work out some way out of the situation.



LOUISE YAXLEY: But both major parties in Australia support offshore detention.



Labor's Spokesman Richard Marles told Lateline he doesn't want the ruling to mean the asylum seekers on Manus Island come to Australia.



RICHARD MARLES: This cannot become a green light for a revival of the people smuggling trade.



Offshore processing has played a critical role in bringing an end to that trade and to the loss of life at sea.



LOUISE YAXLEY: Mr Marles is critical of the Government for not resettling the men more quickly but couldn't nominate where they should go.



RICHARD MARLES: We would make it core business of ours to find options for these people.



LOUISE YAXLEY: Ben Lomai is another PNG lawyer running a similar case to the one decided yesterday.



He says in light of yesterday's ruling, he will make an application to the PNG Supreme Court on Monday to have the men sent back to Australia.



BEN LOMAI: For them to release them back to Australia.



LOUISE YAXLEY: His case also calls for the men to be compensated and says they are entitled to as much as $AU100,000 each.



Mr Lomai says the asylum seekers are delighted at the Supreme Court's decision but they still don't know where they will end up.



BEN LOMAI: There's a lot of jubilation in the camp but at the same time there is some mixed feelings because they are more interested to know where they are going to go from there. Now that they have their freedom, what's next? Where are they going to go?



LOUISE YAXLEY: He says the men think they might now be sent to Nauru.



The Greens are demanding they are brought immediately to Australia.



MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Louise Yaxley with that report.