The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says the announcement by Papua New Guinea's government to temporarily resettle refugees in PNG is an attempt to buy time because Australia's offshore program is in crisis.
A spokesperson for the centre, Pamela Curr, says refugees have been told verbally that some of them could be resettled in Lorengau province, but they've been given no written documents.
Ms Curr says no one has been able to provide an explanation as to what the future of the refugees will be.
We feel that the PNG government is under pressure from the Australian government to make it look as though their resettlement is imminent. And that's why there are all these little leaks about resettlement going on. But we have seen nothing in writing that would lead us to believe that it is as imminent as the government says.
