On Wednesday, speakers addressed a rally of about 900 detainees demonstrating against moves to evict them.

Under PNG law the Australian-run facility must close by November after four years of operation.

The protest was a response to cuts to water and electricity at the Foxtrot compound which is part of the original facility.

In May the Australian government announced the facility would shut down after it was deemed illegal by the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea.

The Australian authorities want the refugees to move to a new site; the protesters say they are being aggressively relocated to the Transit Centre in nearby Lorengau

The East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre, the new facility on Manus Island, is intended to temporarily house refugees awaiting resettlement.

"We are not safe outside the fences, and immigration are trying to make life impossible for us inside," said Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish journalist who fled Iran and has been on Manus Island since 2013.

"We are protesting peacefully for our human rights, and to call on Australia to uphold its commitments to offer us protection as refugees," he said.

The detainees, men who sought asylum in Australia, say they are being forced to settle in PNG.

Iranian refugee Amir Taghinia said at yesterday's rally that Australian media was censoring news of the protest.

"Power and water mean nothing. Even if they cut the food we are not going to go to Lorengau, we do not want to be settled in PNG," he said.

The men also marked the first anniversary of the death of Pakistani refugee Kamil Hussain, who Mr Boochani said had drowned while being "held against his will in an Australian concentration camp."

Source

• RNZ
• New York Times
• Image: ABC

The future of the detainees still remains uncertain.

They have the option to settle in PNG or return home.

The latest figures show just one in four transferees are opting to fly back to their countries of origin.

For now the Ministry of Immigration in Papua New Guinea says all asylum seekers detained on Manus Island are now free to come and go from the processing centre.

For the past three weeks detainees have been free to wander town, go fishing, to the beach and to the market.

Tension between the locals and the detainees is growing.

"They are Muslims, we are Christians, the world is at war over religion, and I do not think we can live peacefully," said Koporou clan chief and prominent local businessman Mochon Peter.

He said the asylum seekers had no respect for what they are given.

"Send them back," the Lombrum landowners committee chairman said.

"No option. Send them back to their own country."

"We don't want them. They are cheating us."

Peter said the asylum seekers were "ungrateful illegals" who are "treated like kings".

Peter, who owns Juromo wholesale and retail stores on Manus, said the "massive boatloads of cash" spent by Australia had been an economic windfall for his isolated island community.

"It has been a blessing for Manus," he said.

"It has brought luck and development for Manus."

Many locals are part of the 2000-odd support staff at the site and there are now new sealed roads, a brand new market, a hospital project, an airport upgrade and plans for a new police station.

"Now everyone is in the dark about the future."

"Many people will lose their jobs and feel much shame."

"The detainees are going around with locals girls, it's creating a lot of jealousy, they are drinking and smoking drugs. "

"If they walk the streets at night PNG people will chop them up with a bush knife. It's not safe."

He said many locals felt resentful towards the "illegals" compared to the dire poverty of his own people.

"Australia should look after its own backyard first," said Mr Peter.

Source

• www.news.com.au
• couriermail.com.au
• Image: Brian Cassey/News Corp Australia

"The Australian Border Force Act, supported by the ALP and opposed only by the Greens, effectively turns the Department of Immigration into a secret security organisation with police powers."

Under the Act, it is a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment of up to two years, for any person working directly or indirectly for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to reveal to the media or any other person or organisation anything that happens in detention centres like the one on Manus Island.

Section 42 of the Act is entitled "Secrecy".

It provides that a person who is an "entrusted person" commits an offence if he or she makes a record of, or discloses, what is termed protected information.

An "entrusted person" is defined in the Act to mean not only government employees, but also a consultant or contractor.

"Protected information" means any information that a person comes across while working for, or in, detention centres.

Barns said the effect of these provisions will be to deter individuals such as doctors, counsellors, and others who have voiced publicly their concerns about the conditions endured by asylum seekers in detention centres from collecting information about those conditions and then raising their concerns in the community via the media.

Source

• probonoaustralia.com.aus
• asopa.typepad.com
• Image: Kerrie Leishman/TheAge

Nauru's new President, Frederick Pitcher, told Nauru media there would be no change in the government's course, despite the departure of his predecessor.

Senior Nauru government officials have said the change in the presidency would not make "a single iota of difference" to the Nauru solution.

"The proposal does not change with the reshuffle," said one minister. "Anyone saying otherwise is playing politics."

Australia's opposition's immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, was expected to try to speak to Mr Pitcher soon to discuss the Coalition's proposal. He said the Coalition looked forward to working with the new President.

Mr Stephen, who was elected on a mandate to end corruption, resigned following a public controversy generated by the leak of an email he had sent to a large buyer of the Pacific nation's phosphate, in which he allegedly appeared to solicit a bribe.

Along with Foreign Minister Kieren Keke, who changed ministerial portfolios as part of a cabinet reshuffle, Mr Stephen had been one of the key backers of the processing centre.

Source

• The Australian
• Image: The Age.com.au