From Dateline Pacific, 6:00 am on 20 March 2017
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Governments of Australia and Papua new Guinea have failed the people of Manus, according to the local MP.
Ronnie Knight's comment comes as PNG's Supreme Court has found that the regional processing centre for asylum seekers on Manus is technically "closed".
The court has been seeking direction on compliance by the governments of PNG and Australia with its ruling last April that holding around 900 men there against their will was illegal.
Accepting a submission from PNG's government, Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia stated the centre had been closed and that refugees and asylum seekers on Manus were now accommodated at the naval base the centre was built on.
Mr Knight told Johnny Blades the ruling was somewhat bizarre.
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The Manus Island detention centre. Photo: Behrouz Boochani
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Manus
Papua New Guiena
TRANSCRIPT
RON KNIGHT: I think the court has been misled. Some fancy words have taken place or something because they make it sound like they closed down the camp and they moved everybody to the naval base to keep them there. In fact, the camp is in the naval base and they're still living in that same camp.
JOHNNY BLADES: So, it's just a technicality that they're talking about, isn't it? But really, on the ground, you're saying they're still held against their will, so to speak?
RK: Well, you know, on the island, even though the gates are open, they've got no access to leave the island on their own free will or go back to where they want to. They're still being held in detention if you look at it that way. Their rights are still being restricted. One of our ministers, honorable Charles Able, has said that by October everything should be shut down. Ferrovial who runs the camp says they won't be working past their contract in October. Unless they are bringing another contractor in and continue with it in a more open way of [running] the camp. We don't know what's happening. Australia seems to have passed the buck to PNG - they were silly enough to accept the responsibility and Australia's keeping mum about it - they're not saying anything. October is too late for them to be moved off Manus, our people right now, after the latest rape of a 10 year old, our people are not happy and I expect things to blow up any time.Porn Italian
JB: You've been warning for years now actually haven't you about the social consequences of having this centre, this arrangement, in your province. Did anyone in the government respond to you?
RK: Every time I raised it in Parliament - they were saying it was very true and all this shit... they say everything else that happens - yes that's true and we'll get people to look into it and that's it - nothing happens. And if you look at what I've said over the years, everything is fallen into place, everything has come to pass - I predicted that they would be let out into the community and that these situations would happen - they told me ' no, nobody will have any interaction with the community, everybody will be locked up behind gates' - what's happening today? I predicted the rise of rapes and all that sort of stuff - now it's happening. It was a contract signed, sealed and delivered. We delivered on our end. They have failed miserably to deliver on their end. They haven't protected my people. They put my community at risk. It's a shameful thing - we're looking now at organising some of our senior Manus lawyers into working on a lawsuit, a class action, to make them responsible for what's happening there.
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