PNG court rules detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island is illegal

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says PNG Court ruling will not change border protection policies.

An Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship photo of the Manus Island Regional Processing Facility, used for the detention of asylum seekers that arrive by boat.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says a ruling by Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court will not change the Turnbull government’s border protection policies after it found Australia’s detention of asylum-seekers on Manus Island was illegal.

Mr Dutton said asylum-seekers found to be refugees could resettle in PNG or return to their country of origin but would not come to Australia.

There are 850 male asylum-seekers in the detention centre and about half have been found to be refugees.

“No one who attempts to travel to Australia illegally by boat will settle in Australia,” Mr Dutton said in a statement.

“The government will not allow a return to the chaos of the years of the Rudd-Gillard Labor governments when regional processing was initiated to deal with the overwhelming illegal arrivals of more than 50,000 people.

“People who have attempted to come illegally by boat and are now in the Manus facility will not be settled in Australia.”

Labor called on Mr Dutton to head straight to PNG and hold “urgent talks” with the government about the detention centre’s future.

Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles said the court’s ruling was “of significant concern” to Labor.

“Labor is seeking an assurance from the government that it has a contingency plan to deal with today’s ruling,” he said.

“This decision, and our government’s response, will be monitored by people smuggling networks. Nearly three years since coming to office and this government has failed to properly manage its offshore processing network.

“The Manus facility was established to serve as a circuit breaker, to end the capacity for people smugglers to market the dangerous journey to Australia. The original agreement Labor struck in 2013 was signed for 12 months. It was never intended to serve as a punitive place of indefinite detention.”

What does the ruling mean?

Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court found Australia’s detention of asylum-seekers on Manus Island is illegal and reportedly urged both countries to take immediate action to stop the practice.

The decision handed down this afternoon means the Manus Island detention centre must be shut down, according to Loani Henao, the lawyer for the PNG opposition leader who launched the challenge in the Supreme Court.

“It effectively means both governments must take steps to effectively shut down the Manus Island detention centre,” he told Sky News.

“... As to how they’re going to deal with the asylum-seekers, they will have to deal with them in such a way that no more detention of the asylum-seekers,” Mr Henao said.

“If it becomes apparent to us, to my clan, that in a reasonable period of time that no necessary steps have been taken by the authorities – that is the government of Papua New Guinea and Australia – we’re going to be seeing them back in court immediately.”

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young seized on the finding, declaring it was “time to bring those left there to Australia to be cared for”.

The PNG Supreme Court has ruled that the Manus Island Detention Camp is ILLEGAL. Time to bring those left there to Australia to be cared for

— Sarah Hanson-Young (@sarahinthesen8) April 26, 2016

“The game is up. The government has got to shut the Manus Island detention camp and bring these people here,” she said.

“This is an important decision and I welcome it. It shows that the Australian government has been illegally detaining refugees on Manus Island for years.

“Malcolm Turnbull has to act. He needs to allow the people there to be brought to Australia so that they can have their claims assessed and, if they are in need of protection, be integrated into the community.”

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie also said the ruling “surely meant” the end of the offshore detention of asylum-seekers who had attempted to reach Australia by boat.

“Australia must immediately respect the court ruling, promptly shut the centre down and transport all of the detainees to Australia for processing of their claims for asylum,” he said.

“The fact is offshore processing is illegal under international law and now has been found to be illegal under at least one country’s domestic law. It’s also always been deeply unethical and a gaping hole in Australia’s soul.”

During a National Press Club address last month PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said he wanted the detention centre closed, insisting his country did not have enough money to pay for the settlement of refugees.

Mr O’Neill also said hosting the centre had caused reputational damage to the country.

The court ruled the detention breached the right to liberty in the PNG constitution, according to the ABC, and ordered both countries to immediately move to end the detention of asylum-seekers.

PNG advised the federal government in October it would begin moving refugees from the Manus Island detention centre into the community, more than two years after the nations struck a resettlement deal.

The Rudd government and PNG signed a resettlement package in July 2013 and the Coalition government has been negotiating to finalise the arrangement.

Under Australian immigration policy, asylum-seekers who attempt to arrive by boat are turned back if it is safe to do so or sent to Nauru or Manus Island for processing. Those found to be refugees are resettled in the community or can go to Cambodia.