The future of hundreds of asylum seekers languishing at an Australian-run detention center in Papua New Guinea remains in doubt, with the leaders of both countries declining to provide details about what will happen to the men if a deal to resettle them in the United States falls through.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said during a visit to the Pacific island nation on Saturday that Papua New Guinea had made "significant progress" toward resettling the nearly 900 men at the Manus Island detention center. But Turnbull dodged questions about exactly where the government plans to send those men if the U.S. refuses to accept them under a deal struck by the Obama administration.

Australia will not settle any asylum seekers who try to arrive by boat.