AUTHORITIES in Papua New Guinea have removed dozens of asylum seekers and ratcheted up pressure on more than 300 others to abandon a decommissioned immigration camp.
Police Commissioner Gari Baki said 50 police and immigration officials entered the Manus Island camp yesterday morning and “peacefully relocated” 50 asylum seekers among the 378 men to alternative accommodation in the nearby town of Lorengau.
Some refugees said their shelters, beds and other belongings had been destroyed. There were reports of some of those transported from the camp being forced to leave, and of immigration officials being armed with sticks and knives.
Baki said all had “left voluntarily”, except for Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochan, a journalist reporting on disturbing conditions on Manus.
Australian immigration and border protection minister Peter Dutton said that Boochan was among “a small number of people ... arrested”, but Baki said Boochan had not been arrested or charged.
Water, power and food supplies ended when the Manus camp officially closed on October 31, based on the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court’s ruling last year that Australia’s policy of housing asylum seekers there was unconstitutional.
Asylum seekers fear for their safety in Lorengau because of threats from local residents.
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