A lawyer representing detainees on Manus Island says he may file contempt of court proceedings against the Papua New Guinea government for failing to comply with a Supreme Court ruling issued in April.
The ruling found the detention of asylum seekers in PNG is unconstitutional.
Recently, the government has signaled its intention to close one detention facility on the island and keep another open.
Ben Robinson Drawbridge spoke with the lawyer, Ben Lomai who says his contempt proceedings could target the Foreign Minister, the Prime Minister and the Chief Immigration Officer for misconstruing the April ruling.
Numerous protests have been held throughout Australia and New Zealand calling for the closure of the detention centres.
Photo: RNZI/ Sally Round
Transcript
BEN LOMAI: Twenty-sixth of April decision must be complied with and that is that the detention centres should be closed but it seems that the government is not complying with the orders so I have actually contemplated filing a contempt of proceedings against Rimbink Pato, the Immigration Minister and the Chief Immigration Officer Rabura Mataio and as well as the Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, they should remove this crop of asylum seekers back to Australia or if not, to an arranged country, but not to allow them to stay on and have the centre open.
BEN ROBINSON DRAWBRIDGE: Can I just confirm and distinguish the difference between the Lombrum naval base detention centre and the Lorengau centre, so the government is suggesting they will close the Lombrum base but keep Lorengau open?
BL: All the detention centre should be closed whether it's in Lombrum or in Lorengau or even any other parts of Manus or for that matter any other areas in Papua New Guinea. The Supreme Court has already nullified that order, it has already declared that the MOU of 2013 is unconstitutional and therefore it's unenforceable and so any detention either in Manus or outside of Manus is still unconstitutional as far as in relations to the detention of the current asylum seekers as per the memorandum of 2013. So they have miscontrued the judgement, with respect to Rimbink Pato, he has miscontrued the judgement and that is why I'm contemplating filing a contempt proceedings against him, the chief migration officer and the Prime Minister.
BRD: Can we just talk about the Lorengau centre because it's not very big is it? How many people can actually be housed there
BL: It could be less than 300, or if not, 250. It's a very tired facility and also the landmass is very small in terms of the flexibility for the asylum seekers to move about and it's another place where even if it's open it also amounts to detention in itself.
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