Australia says it has agreed to close a controversial asylum seeker detention centre in Papua, New Guinea (PNG).
This is according to the PNG Prime Minister, Peter O’neill who met Australia’s Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, in Port Moresby on Wednesday.
“Both Papua New Guinea and Australia are in agreement that the center is to be closed,” PNG Prime Minister said in a statement.
“A series of options are being advanced and implemented. It is important that this process is not rushed out but carried out in a careful manner.”
Meanwhile Dutton in his statement said: “It has been the longstanding position of this government to work with PNG to close Manus and support those people as they transit into PNG or return to their country of origin.
“Our position, confirmed again today with PNG, is that no one from Manus Island Regional Processing Centre will ever be settled in Australia”.
PNG’s Supreme Court found in April that detaining asylum seekers and refugees at the centre was unconstitutional.
However, Mr O’neill says the Manus Regional Processing Centre, which currently houses 854 men, would not close immediately.
Australia sends asylum seekers who arrive in the country by boat to offshore detention centres in Manus Island and the pacific nation of Nauru.
