Manus Island fear RIOTS: Shut down the detention centre ‘within weeks’

Parts of Australian-run Manus Island detention centre will be shut down within weeks ahead of its final closure, prompting refugees to fear riots will break out.

Papua New Guinea officials on Monday reportedly told refugees that an area of the camp would close on Sunday, with the rest of the compound to be shut on June 30.

But Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said Manus Island was still on track for closure at the end of October.

‘The centre won’t close drop dead on the 31st of October, they will start to decommission parts of the centre in the run up,’ Mr Dutton told 3AW on Tuesday.

An unspecified number of asylum-seekers will be relocated to a transit centre, according to Reuters.

Detainees awaiting acceptance for resettlement by the United States have been told that some of them will be held at the East Lorengau camp, near the island’s major town.

Mr Dutton previously said refugees who aren’t taken under the US resettlement deal will settle in PNG, while non-refugees will be sent back to their home country.

‘We’ve been consistent in the message that people will not settle here,’ he told 3AW on Tuesday.

As at 31 October last year, 82 per cent of the men had been found to be legitimate refugees by the PNG government, according to Australian government figures.

Greens senator Nick McKim has slammed the Turnbull government plan, over fears it will be put refugee lives at risk.

‘The potential here is that some detainees may die as a result of the announcement … Papua New Guinea is not a safe place for these detainees,’ Senator McKim told reporters in Hobart on Tuesday.

Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani said Australia was continuing to violate human rights.

‘The Australian government wants to implement this policy in spite of the serious resistance from local [PNG] people who are strongly against the decision to take more people into their community,’ Mr Boochani said.

‘In addition, the refugees are asking for freedom in a safe place.

‘It is unavoidable that the refugees will resist and the government knows that well… But it appears again that there is not any law for protecting the refugees and there is not any justice.’

Mr Boochani said Manus Island was ‘full of tension’ and refugees were ‘very angry’ with the plan.

He told the ABC he expected there to be riots.

‘We want to say to people and to the government, we don’t want to live in PNG,’ he told ABC.

‘Don’t use force and don’t make trouble in this island. It is enough.’

The Manus Island complex was slated for closure on October 31, after PNG’s Supreme Court ruled it illegal last year.

Human rights groups and the United Nations have criticised the camp’s cramped conditions, inadequate medical facilities, and violence, with activists renewing calls for the centre to be immediately shut down in recent months.

News of the planned closure came after Amnesty International released its report into the Good Friday shooting at the centre.

The human rights group said verified footage and images confirmed bullets were fired directly into the camps during the rampage, contradicting initial claims made by Australian immigration officials and PNG police suggesting soldiers only fired bullets into the air.

MORE: Parts of Manus Island detention centre shut ‘within weeks’ | Daily Mail Online