Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull confirmed at a press conference today that the Australian-run detention centre on Manus Island will be shut by the end of the year.
The PNG Supreme Court found last year that the detention centre was illegal, as it contravened the country’s constitution.
During the press conference, which was held at Port Moresby today with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, Turnbull said:
“I want to thank you prime minister [O’Neill] for your government’s continued cooperation in the vitally important fight against people smuggling.“We will continue to work together to close the regional processing centre by the end of the year.”
Some of the 861 men currently in detention on Manus Island will most likely be resettled in the United States, but neither Turnbull nor O’Neill would say what will happen to the rest of them.
Sky News reports that, according to the immigration department, Australia is currently not negotiating with other countries to take the asylum seekers.
On the one hand, closing the notoriously ghastly centre is a huge win for refugees and human rights activists; on the other, it’s likely that the men who aren’t taken to America will be thrust into limbo in some other part of the world.
Here’s hoping that that’s not the case.
Source: Sky News.
Photo: Getty.
