Australia, PNG to discuss future of controversial asylum seeker camp
SYDNEY: The future of an Australia’s controversial asylum- seeker detention centre in Papua New Guinea will be discussed during a two- day visit by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to the Pacific island nation starting today.
Australia is under pressure from human rights groups and the United Nations to close its two Pacific island detention centres, which have been widely criticised for cramped conditions, inadequate medical care and violence.
The Papua New Guinea Supreme Court ruled last year that the country’s Manus island detention centre should close, forcing Australia and its Pacific island ally to confirm it would close the camp during 2017.
“The primary reason for Turnbull’s visit is to discuss economic prospects but the topic of Manus island will be addressed too,” a source familiar with the visit told Reuters on Thursday.
Turnbull’s trip to Papua New Guinea comes a day after he met with Baron Waqa, the president of Nauru, and thanked him for hosting Australia’s second detention centre in the Pacific.
Waga later met Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to discuss the future of Nauru after the detention centre closes, though no timetable was given for the closure.
“We want to look at the economic opportunities for Nauru post the regional processing centre,” Bishop said at a meeting Waqa in Sydney.
Australia has a strict policy of not allowing anyone who tries to reach the country by boat to settle there, instead detaining them in the Pacific camps, where asylum claims processing can take years, and even if they are found to be genuine refugees they are still barred from Australia.
Australia agreed with former US President Barack Obama late last year for the United States to resettle up to 1,250 asylum seekers held in the Australian-funded camps. In return, Australia would resettle refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Any person not settled will be given the choice of residency in PNG or a 20-year visa on Nauru.
Turnbull’s visit to Papua New Guinea will overlap that of the U. S. Department of Homeland Security, which begun collecting biometric information of some of the near 900 men held on Manus Island earlier this week. — Reuters