NATION Police force Manus detainees to move

ALL remaining refugees and asylum seekers at the mothballed Manus Island detention facility have been moved out, ending a tense three- week stand- off.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton yesterday confirmed the 300- odd men who had refused to leave were now in alternative accommodation.

“The Australian Government welcomes this development,” he said in a statement.

Papua New Guinea police and immigration officers bearing metal batons entered the centre yesterday morning to complete the task of clearing it, three weeks after it was officially closed.

The UN High Commission for Refugees received reports of force being used but PNG police said no one was forced or handcuffed.

The centre, set up by Australia to process asylum seeker boat arrivals, was officially closed on October 31. However, the men refused to leave, saying the new facilities were unsafe and lacked proper health services. Mr Dutton ac- cused advocates in Australia of making inaccurate and exaggerated claims of violence and injuries on Manus.

“Advocates should now desist from holding out false hope to these men that they will ever be brought to Australia,” he said.

World Vision chief advocate Tim Costello, who is on Manus Island, said a number of those taken by bus to the new camps were covered in bruises and scratches and suffering from malnutrition.

At least one of the three al- ternative centres remained a construction site, he said, with machinery, tractors, concrete mixers and open drains still there. “If you were an Australian builder you wouldn’t let a civilian on to it, let alone move in,” he said.

“The problem hasn’t changed – it’s just moved.”

He suggested Malcolm Turnbull could appoint a special envoy to improve the situation.

The envoy would be an “honest broker” who could talk to Papua New Guinea authori- ties, and New Zealand about their offer to resettle 150 refugees, and the possibility of a special visa that would ban them from Australia.

Labor believes the 24- day stand- off could have been avoided if the Prime Minister and Mr Dutton had managed the situation from the start.

Immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann said the Prime Minister must now ensure the asylum seekers and refugees were kept safe and secure while they remained in PNG.