Pattaya sees rise in independent Chinese tourists amid decline in group tours

[webfact]

Asylum seekers defy deadline for closure of Papua New Guinea detention centre

By Colin Packham

 

Security fences surround buildings inside the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea, February 11, 2017. Behrouz Boochani/Handout via REUTERS

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers were barricading themselves inside a detention centre in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Tuesday, defying attempts by Australia and PNG authorities to close the facility.

 

Human rights advocates are warning of a looming humanitarian crisis in the stand-off between detainees of the Manus Island Centre and authorities as the Oct. 31 deadline to close the Australian-funded camp arrived.

 

Lawyers for some 600 men who are refusing to relocated in three other facilities in PNG, citing concerns about violent reprisals from the local community, were filing a last-minute lawsuit on Tuesday seeking an injunction to prevent the camp's closure and the relocation of the men to a third country.

 

The Manus centre has been a key plank of Australia's controversial "Sovereign Borders" immigration policy. The country refuses to allow asylum seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores, detaining them in camps in PNG and Nauru in the South Pacific. The United Nations and rights groups have for years cited human rights abuses among detainees in the centres.

 

Nick McKim, a senator with the Australian Greens Party who is on Manus, said that authorities had cut power to the centre on and off overnight in a bid to encourage the men to leave.

 

PNG officials also posted a notice at the camp early on Tuesday warning the men that electricity and water supplies would be turned off at 5pm local time, while no further food would be delivered to the camp.

 

Asylum seekers said many men had now run out of food, while others were surviving on supplies that they had stockpiled.

 

PNG has sent paramilitary services to oversee the closure.

 

"This is a breach of human rights," McKim told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. "They remain Australia's responsibility and the U.N. has repeatedly confirmed that."

 

PNG's High Court ruled last year that the Manus centre, first opened in 2001, was illegal. Closed between 2008 and 2011, the centre reopened in 2012 after a rise in the number of boat arrivals to a peak of 300 in 2013, carrying more than 20,500 people. Two years later, the Australian government announced that boat arrivals had stopped.

 

PNG Immigration Minister Petrus Thomas warned late on Sunday that Australia will not be allowed to walk away from legal, financial and moral responsibility for the men.

 

Australia has already said it would spend up to A$250 million (147.68 million pounds) to house the men for the next 12 months. Just under 200 men have already been moved.

 

The relocation of the men is designed as a temporary measure, allowing the United States time to complete vetting of refugees as part of a refugee swap deal.

 

The United States has agreed to take up to possibly 1,250 refugees from Australia's two Pacific detention centres, but so far only 25 men from Manus have been resettled. In exchange, Australia said it will resettle Central American refugees.

 

Australia has said those detainees not resettled in the United States will be allowed to stay in PNG or Nauru. But nearly all have refused invitations to settle permanently in both locations. Thomas said PNG will not force anyone to remain.

 

The bulk of the detainees come from war-torn countries such as Syria and Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

 

(Reporting by Jane Wardell; editing by Clive McKeef)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-31

[collingwood]

Just another money scam by the lawyers and the brain dead greens

[gamini]

These poor people have done nothing wrong and they are kept in concentration camps! Shame on Australia

[sanemax]

7 minutes ago, gamini said:

These poor people have done nothing wrong and they are kept in concentration camps! Shame on Australia

They are detention centers, they are not concentration camps

Trying to enter a Country without the correct documents is "doing something wrong"

[Orton Rd]

39 minutes ago, gamini said:

These poor people have done nothing wrong and they are kept in concentration camps! Shame on Australia

Most of them are illegal economic migrants and can always go back home, where they should be

[collingwood]

To the bleeding hearts, they are illegals they are looked after by the Gov  better than any retuned services person or pensioner in Aus. 

[InMyShadow]

These poor people have done nothing wrong and they are kept in concentration camps! Shame on Australia

They are lucky to have free accommodation, fresh running water, free food and medicals. Good luck with that in the crap hole they got the raft from

 

Try getting a medical as a life long tax payer if your out of oz for a few years

 

AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!

 

 

[tezzainthailand]

On 10/31/2017 at 2:21 PM, collingwood said:

Just another money scam by the lawyers and the brain dead greens

Actually if they had been brought to Australia in the first place  it would  have been a lot lot cheaper.  I know who the brain dead are. The true scammers are the companies that have been in charge of detention centres like Nauru and Manus.  Australia's shame.

[tezzainthailand]

On 10/31/2017 at 3:34 PM, Orton Rd said:

Most of them are illegal economic migrants and can always go back home, where they should be

No, most are found to be genuine refugees.  No sane person who had a relatively safe existence (albeit poor existence) back in their homeland would be crazy enough to risk coming to Australia on a broken up boat.  Work it out..it's not that difficult.

[tezzainthailand]

On 10/31/2017 at 4:05 PM, collingwood said:

To the bleeding hearts, they are illegals they are looked after by the Gov  better than any retuned services person or pensioner in Aus. 

The current Aus government looks after itself and its rich supporters more than anyone, but Aussies have been dumb enough to vote them back in.  Yeah, when your country has no direction, when a government is rotten to the core and the country has so many problems, just blame the refugees.

[collingwood]

The bleeding heart, broken boat....paid people smugglers, get you info from the informed not the ABC and the bias reporting of the ABC and the lefty greens, they are Illegals, from a sect that will not assimilate....not welcome. They are trying to pull the same scam that was done on Nauru, where the Aus tax payer had to fork out 70 million.!!!

[tezzainthailand]

1 hour ago, collingwood said:

The bleeding heart, broken boat....paid people smugglers, get you info from the informed not the ABC and the bias reporting of the ABC and the lefty greens, they are Illegals, from a sect that will not assimilate....not welcome. They are trying to pull the same scam that was done on Nauru, where the Aus tax payer had to fork out 70 million.!!!

Don't just blame the refugees, blame the ABC and the lefty Greens, why not blame the gays, Asians, climate scientists and Aboriginals while you are at it?...ha! ha! old white farts are good for a laugh at least.