Supreme Court Dismisses Manus Island refugees’ Case
The Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea has dismissed the case brought by 731 Manus Island refugees seeking enforcement of their constitutional rights.
After the court ruled in 2016 that their detention was unlawful, the refugees applied for compensation and orders they be resettled in another country.
The refugees’ lawyer, Ben Lomai, said the court had now ruled it was unable to consider the refugees’ compensation claim as part of their application for the enforcement of their human rights.
“They were of the view that the enforcement of human rights does not include a claim for compensation. A claim for compensation must go back to the National Court to deal with. Only enforcement of human rights can be pursued under Order Six of the Supreme Court rules,” Dr Lomai said. However, the court should have been able to consider the application for resettlement, the lawyer said.
“That bit is an enforcement of human rights. If they are of the view that compensation is not the enforcement of human rights, the resettlement issue is the enforcement of human rights. They should have kept that bit alive.”
The lawyer said he now had the option of filing an application in which to argue the court was wrong to dismiss the claim for resettlement.
“I have 21 days to file an application to correct the mistakes of the judges. I have 21 days to say you made an error because we have a case for resettlement which is an enforcement of human rights,” Dr Lomai said.