US$195m to house refugees after PNG centre closes

SYDNEY: Australia will spend up to A$ 250 million ( US$ 195 million) housing nearly 800 refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea for the next 12 months after its controversial detention centre closes this month.

But hundreds of detainees are refusing the leave the Australianrun and funded Manus Island detention centre, which will close on Oct 31, fearing for their safety in the general community on Manus Island off Papua New Guinea’s north coast.

Behrouz Boochani, a KurdishIranian journalist held on Manus Island for four years, said detainees fear being assaulted if they moved to the new, Australianfunded Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre.

“Refugees either move to Lorengau where they risk being attacked by angry local people, or be taken over by PNG defence forces who have already seriously threatened their safety,” Boochani told Reuters.

Australia refuses to allow asylum seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores, instead detaining them in offshore centres on Manus and the South Pacific island nation of Nauru.

The Papua New Guinea Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that the Manus centre was illegal and the government in the capital Port Moresby ordered its closure.

Australia had hoped the detainees would be either resettled into Papua New Guinea society or the United States, under a controversial refugee swap, by the time the centre closed.

So far, only 54 refugees have moved to the United States. — Reuters