New Zealand offers fund for Manus refugees

New Zealand has pledged NZ$3.0 million (Dh7.71 million; $2.1 million) to help hundreds of refugees involved in a tense standoff at a shuttered Australian detention camp in Papua New Guinea.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the funds would help meet the needs of some 400 men who face dwindling food and water supplies as they refuse to leave the controversial Manus Island camp, which was officially closed by Australia last month.

“We intend to work with PNG and other agencies like the International Red Cross to financially support them... while those refugees remain on the island,” Ardern told reporters late Tuesday.

The men were sent to the camp under Canberra’s tough immigration policy, which forced asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia by boat into either Manus or another remote facility on the Pacific island nation of Nauru.

Uncertain future

However, Australia shuttered the Manus camp on October 31 after the PNG Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional, leaving an uncertain future for the detainees, who have said they fear for their safety outside.

They are barred from resettling in Australia and Canberra has struggled to transfer them to third countries.

New Zealand has said it will take 150 of the men but the offer has been rebuffed by Canberra amid fears it could encourage people smugglers to resume efforts to bring asylum-seekers to the region.

Ardern said she met with her Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull twice this week on the sidelines of Asean-hosted summits in Manila to reiterate that the offer stood.

She said Turnbull only agreed at this point to let New Zealand and Australian officials work together on processing refugees in case the offer was eventually accepted.