PNG immigration minister says those who don’t want to to remain after Manus closure are Australia’s responsibility

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Refugees held on Manus Island who do not want to resettle in Papua New Guinea will not be forced to, and Australia must find them somewhere else to go, the PNG government has warned.

In a reflection of PNG’s growing frustration with Australia’s offshore processing policy the country’s minister for immigration and border protection, Petrus Thomas, issued an unprecedentedly forceful statement late on Sunday, telling Australia it held legal, financial and moral responsibility for the refugees held on Manus.

The statement was released publicly, but is clearly aimed at officials in Canberra, as the two governments negotiate this week on managing the refugee population beyond the slated closure of the Manus detention centre on Tuesday.

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“It is PNG’s position that as long as there is one individual from this arrangement that remains in PNG, Australia will continue to provide financial and other support to PNG to manage the persons transferred under the arrangement until the last person leaves or is independently resettled in PNG,” Thomas said.

“PNG has offered refugees the option of resettlement but will not force refugees who do not wish to settle in the country … they remain the responsibility of Australia.”

Thomas said the PNG government was also concerned about asylum seekers who had been found not to be refugees – ie they did not meet the refugee convention criteria for protection – but who were refusing to leave the country. A significant proportion of that cohort on Manus is from Iran, a country which refuses to accept forcible repatriations.

“PNG’s concern is about the residual caseload of refugees not willing to resettle and non-refugees who will continue to remain in the country after the closure of the Manus regional processing centre at Lombrum,” the statement said.

“There has to be a clear understanding of what Australia will continue to do and support PNG in the next few months to deal with the remaining caseload. PNG currently had no obligation under the current arrangement and Australia will continue to be responsible. There must be a review of the arrangement to clarify these international obligations.”

Elaine Pearson, Australia director of Human Rights Watch, said Thomas was “right to be concerned about the ramifications of Australia walking away from it responsibilities”.

“Australia has bullied the PNG government into meeting this arbitrary deadline of October 31, while providing no long term solution for the men trapped on Manus,” said Pearson.

“Australia should start living up to its international obligations and immediately transfer all the men to safety.”

Thomas’s statement comes two days before the planned shutdown of the Manus Island regional processing centre, the detention that has run for four years inside a military base and was ruled “illegal and unconstitutional” last year.

About 700 men – more than 600 of whom have been formally recognised as having refugee status: they have a well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland, cannot be repatriated, and are legally owed protection – are refusing to leave the current detention compound, despite the shutdown of buildings, and withdrawal of food, water, electricity and medical services.

The water and electricity will be completely shut off in coming days, but hundreds of men have said they will not leave, because they do not feel safe in the community on Manus, where tensions between Manusians, and the refugee and asylum seeker population have been growing.

The Manus centre – which was reopened in 2012 by the Gillard government – has attracted consistent controversy over systematic rights abuses including murder, physical violence, sexual abuse, allegations of torture by guards, medical neglect leading to death and catastrophic rates of mental health damage, self-harm and suicide. PNG politicians, including the prime minister and the governor of Manus, have long bemoaned the damage the centre has done to the country’s international reputation.

“I am also concerned about human rights issues highlighted by the United Nations and international organisations on the reduction of health services on Manus for refugees and non-refugees,” Thomas said.

Thomas has also said the jobs created by the offshore regime should go to PNG nationals rather than the extensive fly-in, fly-out expatriate workforce that has dominated the four years of the detention centre’s life.

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Security guards hired in Fiji are preparing to fly to Manus this week to assist with security during the planned shutdown of the detention centre. However Petrus told local media this was done without consultation with the PNG government, and he suggested they would not be allowed in.

Petrus said immigration officials had already refused entry to 31 foreign nationals flown in to Port Moresby to work for the security contractor, Paladin.



PNG’s police commissioner, Gari Baki, has warned of possible violence, saying the safety of refugees and workers at the centre “is not to be taken for granted”.

Australian government officials and ministers have consistently maintained that the arrangements of offshore processing are “matters for the government of PNG and Nauru”.

International legal opinion, however, in particularly that of various arms of the UN, holds that Australia maintains effective control of the processing centres, and has legal responsibility for the welfare of those held within the system.