PNG will resettle some, but not all, asylum seekers found to be refugees
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Version 0 of 1. Papua New Guinea will resettle some, but not all, of the asylum seekers on Manus Island found to be genuine refugees and is seeking other Pacific nations to share the burden, the PNG prime minister has said after talks with Tony Abbott. Peter O’Neill said his country’s parliament would pass the necessary laws for resettlement to occur in May, and resettlement of some the 1,310 asylum seekers now on Manus Island could begin by June. Asked whether PNG would take all of the asylum seekers, as was pledged in the agreement signed between PNG and the former Rudd government in August 2013, O’Neill said: “Not all … we will take some, we will take as much as we can, we will also want all the other countries in the region, others in the Pacific, to extend their participation … we expect everybody to carry a certain burden, as we do.” O’Neill said some PNG communities had already offered to resettle asylum seekers and that it was “pretty hard to speculate [about resettlement] when we don’t know the numbers of people we are talking about”. He said he expected a majority of those detained on Manus Island would be found to be “economic refugees” rather than refugees fleeing persecution. Abbott said he was “extremely gratified to have from Peter this morning his assurance that the people and the government of PNG are committed to staying the course and … very grateful that the regulatory process is in train so that the settlement process can begin by May or June”. “I understand that, depending on how many of those on Manus are found to be genuine refugees, it might be difficult for PNG to resettle all of them,” he said. A lack of information provided to asylum seekers on Manus about what would happen to them has been cited as a major reason for the escalating tensions that led to last month’s violence that claimed the life of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati. Both the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Amnesty International have criticised slow processing and unresolved resettlement arrangements at the detention centre. The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, has said the original memorandum of understanding with PNG had been “little more than a blank sheet of paper” with the incoming government forced to negotiate the details. Processing has been underway on Manus Island for some months and Guardian Australia understands several cases are now at “draft decision” level. Australia is urgently finishing more permanent accommodation, closer to the township of East Lorengau, with the intention of resettling people there for the foreseeable future, while long-term resettlement arrangements are negotiated. Abbott said Australia could best help the PNG process by “ensuring that those found not to be refugees are swiftly repatriated”. PNG’s foreign minister, Rimbink Pato, recently told Guardian Australia the initial agreement with the former Rudd government, allowing asylum seekers to be transferred to Manus for one year from August 2013, had been extended to apply for a second year. Abbott’s two-day visit to PNG coincides with an inquiry into the Manus Island unrest by PNG judge David Cannings, which has taken evidence from asylum seekers this week. That inquiry was due to allow some media into the centre with the judge on Friday. Both countries are conducting inquiries to report on the incident. PNG’s chief immigration officer, Mataio Rabura, has told Guardian Australia that after Robert Cornall, a former senior Australian public servant, had completed his investigation “PNG and Australian immigration will assess the reports [his and PNG immigration’s] and submit a joint report to both governments”. Rabura’s answer appears to explain a reference by Morrison to the various reports into the incident being “synthesised”. |