Papua New Guinean police appeared to hold off on a threat to storm the Manus Island detention centre on Thursday evening, after promising to arrest its managers for obstruction of justice, claiming they helped three Australian men facing sexual assault charges evade prosecution.

The three detention centre workers, who were all employed by Wilson Security, are accused of drugging and gang-raping one of their colleagues, a Papua New Guinean woman, in July. They have since been fired and repatriated to Australia, to the ire of local authorities.

The Manus Island police commander, Alex N’Drasal, told Guardian Australia on Wednesday that if the men were not returned to the country by Thursday he would “go ahead and arrest all those responsible for deporting them out of Papua New Guinea”.

The Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection said the men had been stood down and returned to Australia after an incident but the suggestion they had been removed to avoid prosecution, or without consultation with PNG authorities, was “simply wrong”.

N’Drasal, in turn, claimed he was only made aware of the rape allegation last Friday and did not speak to Australian immigration officials until Tuesday, almost two weeks after the woman is said to have been raped.

According to Australian Associated Press the woman made an official complaint to police on Wednesday morning and supplied some evidence. The crime of rape carries the death penalty in PNG.

N’Drasal did not return calls by Guardian Australia on Thursday. According to reports by the ABC, Manus Island police were demanding the return of the men by 4.06pm, the formal close of business time in PNG, or arrests would follow. That deadline passed with no reports of activity at the detention centre and it was unclear whether police would follow through.

Two additional flights were sent to Manus Island on Thursday, the ABC reported, amid unconfirmed reports staff were being evacuated from the detention centre.

The Manus Island MP, Ronnie Knight, told Guardian Australia the failure to turn the men over to PNG authorities entrenched the view among locals that those running the detention centre felt their Australian employees to be above the law.

“It’s a slap in the face because there’s already an issue there that is very, very raw for our people, and that is the murder of Reza Barati,” Knight said.

Barati, a 23-year-old Iranian asylum seeker, was killed during riots at the detention centre on 17 February, which injured 70 others.

Two PNG men, G4S guard Louie Efi and Salvation Army worker Joshua Kaluvia, were charged with his murder and are awaiting trial.

But Knight and others are suspicious about why police have been unable to locate and charge two more men, an Australian and a New Zealander, who are also suspects in Barati’s murder. “Our people see it as if our local guys are being made scapegoats for this,” he said.

Knight said charging managers with obstruction of justice would go some way toward easing those tensions.

It’s only a summary charge – the penalty, even if they were found guilty following a trial, is not likely to be anything more than a hefty fine – but, Knight said, “at least it’s something that is seen to be done”.

We just hope that common sense prevails and these people can come back and face these charges Ronnie Knight, Manus MP

He added: “We just hope that common sense prevails and these people can come back and face these charges … why would they not come back, just to clear their name?

“At the end of the day they have to respect the sovereignty of Manus and of Papua New Guinea. These are our laws and you can’t just run away from this kind of thing.

“We have people from Papua New Guinea in this situation in Australia who Australia has thrown the book at. Why should these Australians be allowed to get away?”

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has declined to comment, beyond confirming that three former detention centre workers are back in Australia.

Wilson Security has also been contacted for comment.