The injuries of two Iranian refugees, allegedly bashed by local authorities on Manus Island. Ronny Knight, the MP representing Manus Island, said the three had been consuming home brew and abusing locals when police were called. "They were a bit violent with police so they got slapped around, but not in a bad way," Mr Knight said. "They were handled properly." The arrests came before immigration officials took what might be the first steps towards including the refugees on Manus in the resettlement deal struck with the United States. Almost 900 asylum seekers remain in the detention centre that was declared unconstitutional in April. Scores more who have refugee status reside at a transit centre in the province's only town of East Lorengau. More than a dozen are living in the PNG community.

The resettlement deal was announced on November 12, with Immigration Minister Peter Dutton saying the initial focus would be on the most vulnerable refugees, particularly women, children and family groups on Nauru. On Tuesday, those in the detention centre were informed they should go to the Lorengau centre if they wanted to express interest in being part of the US deal. Refugees who spoke to Fairfax Media said they were sceptical, as there was plenty of space for applications to be made in the detention centre. The latest arrests follow a violent confrontation between two asylum seekers and PNG immigration officials and police on New Year's Eve that left the pair with serious facial and other injuries. The two, identified as Mehdi, 26, and Mohammad, 28, were still being treated at the detention centre's medical clinic on Tuesday after being released on bail, having spent more than 36 hours in the East Lorengau lock-up. They have each been charged with one count of being drunk and disorderly and one count of resisting arrest and are expected to appear in court on Wednesday. The three who were arrested on Monday night are due to appear in court on Friday on the same charges.

Mr Knight has declared that the two who say they were bashed by police and PNG immigration officials on New Year's Eve "deserved what they got". "These two were drunk out of their brains and stopping traffic and punching cars and harassing women as they were walking home from the night market," Mr Knight, PNG's Vice Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry told Fairfax Media. His claims were emphatically rejected by friends of the two, who insist they were the victims of a drunken and unprovoked assault by local immigration officials, and then police, and will plead not guilty when they face court.