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Australia responsible for fate of refugees after PNG camp closure: Official

Monday, 30 October 2017 11:21 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 30 October 2017 11:22 AM ]

A handout photo taken in late 2016, and obtained from the Refugee Action Coalition, shows Australia-run refugee detention center on Manus Island in Papua Guinea. (Via AFP)

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has warned the Australian government about its responsibility towards the fate of the refugees after the planned closure of its controversial offshore detention center on Manus Island.

The Australian-funded center for more than four years is scheduled to be closed on Tuesday after being declared illegal by a PNG court.

Since 2012, the facility has seen scandal after scandal, from the poor state of its basic infrastructure to allegations of torture and mismanagement, shocking rates of trauma and mental illness, and six deaths, including one murder.

Despite its shocking human rights record, defenders of human rights are warning of another looming humanitarian crisis if those held at the detention center are not properly resettled, leaving them to being targeted by locals.

PNG's Immigration Minister Petrus Thomas warned that the Australia government will not be allowed to walk away from its legal, financial and moral responsibility towards the asylum-seekers after it closes the detention center.

He said late on Sunday that Australia will remain responsible for the welfare of the men that have been detained in the Australian-funded center for more than four years.

Australia, which refuses to allow asylum-seekers arriving by boat to settle in the country, keeps them in detention camps in PNG and Nauru in the South Pacific.

The United Nations and rights groups have for years cited human rights abuses among detainees in these centers.

"It is PNG's position that as long as there is one individual from this arrangement that remains in PNG, Australia will continue to provide financial and other support to PNG to manage the persons transferred under the arrangement until the last person leaves or is independently resettled in PNG," Thomas said in an emailed statement.

Australia has already said it would spend up to $195 million housing the nearly 800 refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea for the next 12 months after its controversial detention center closes.

The center houses nearly 800 men, with 600 set to be moved to three new transit camps. Just under 200 men have already relocated.

The bulk of the detainees come from war-torn countries such as Syria and Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

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