Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has revealed in Parliament today that the government will be implementing the Supreme Court decision and shut down the Manus asylum processing centre.
He said his discussion with Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton yesterday (Wednesday) highlighted some of the issues.
They discussed whether the refugees will be transferred to a third country or moved back to their original country.
However, O’Neill said the implementation of their transfer has been complicated as most of the refugees do not know their countries of origin.
O'Neill added that most of them (refugees) have deliberately lost their travel documents and were not cooperative. This had made it difficult for the officials to find out their countries of origin and return them.
It will take some time for the officials to find out the refugees’ countries of origin.
O'Neill was responding to Komo-Margarima MP Francis Potape, who was asking about how soon the government will close the processing centre.