The “grand chief” of Papua New Guinea has blasted the Australian and PNG governments over the Manus Island standoff, accusing them of lacking human dignity and respect.

Sir Michael Somare said Australia’s behaviour showed “astounding” hypocrisy.

More than 600 men are refusing to leave the detention centre, which officially closed on Tuesday with all services, electricity and water withdrawn, saying they feared for their safety in the Lorengau community.

The men were ordered to move into community accommodation, but the UN has said at least one of the three compounds is not ready.

Somare said he was watching with sadness as Australia and PNG “play football with the lives of refugees on Manus Island”.

“Acts of violence have been perpetrated with impunity and worse still lives have been lost. Yet your governments are indifferent about why people risk so much making the perilous journey to start new lives.”

The founding prime minister of PNG said retirement allowed him the liberty to speak about “the miserable manner in which Australia is trying to offload the Manus Island refugees”.

Australia is a large enough developed economy that should be addressing their problems on their own shores, he said.

“To exploit the vulnerabilities of neighbours like PNG and Nauru is disgraceful enough but to treat human beings with complete apathy is ruthless and insensible. Descendants of many Australians who are opposed to boat people also arrived by boat before and after federation in Australia.

“The hypocrisy is astounding.”

Somare said when he became prime minister for the third time in 2002 an arrangement was already in place to detain and process Australia’s asylum seekers on Manus Island, and he honoured the agreement.

He said the onus was on Australia to ensure the integration of refugees into the small island community of Manus.

“I am sure that many of the refugees are skilled people and with the right assistance can adjust well into our communities,” he said.

On Thursday the commanding officer of the Lombrum PNG naval base, which contains the detention centre, said there would be no “arbitrary action” taken against the detainees. However he added that if ordered by navy headquarters to respond to any incident, the navy would remove detainees by force.

The detainees are facing their third night without power and water inside the centre. Lawyers representing the group are still seeking a supreme court hearing for their application, alleging their human rights have been breached.

The Guardian understands the lawyers are hoping to meet with PNG government lawyers to find a reasonable solution to the impasse – potentially a short-term reopening of the centre with food, water and security restored, until a more long-term solution can be found.