Immigration staff at the Regional Processing Centre in Manus will continue processing 203 residents with asylum seeker status till October.
Progressive reports on the processing of the residents were given to the Chief Justice, Sir Salamo Injia, yesterday when the Supreme Court inquiry returned for mention.
The Chief Justice has taken on himself to conduct an inquiry into the status of the orders issued by the court in Namah’s case on April 26.
After three years in detention, 1,010 transferees, now called residents, have been in Manus as of April 26. This was when the five-man Supreme Court bench found the Regional Processing Centre unconstitutional and illegal, ordering a cease of operation there.
As of Friday, July 15, 636 transferees, or now residents in Manus, have been given refugee status, 128 have been screened and identified as non-refugees while 203 are asylum seekers still being processed.
43 transferees are still in Australia for medical reasons. 13 of those are refugees while 30 are asylum seekers.
Laias Kandi, the lawyer representing Immigration Minister Rimbink Pato and the Chief Migration officer Mataio Rabura, told the court yesterday that those 30 asylum seekers in Australia will be a challenge as they are under a different jurisdiction.
Those remaining 203 asylum seekers will undergo the Minister’s final determination once they are processed through the merits review process.
Meanwhile, five refugees will be identified and will undergo a trial case of resettlement in PNG where issues of resettlement would be identified.
A couple of refugees previously tried resettling in Lae. However, they have returned to Manus.
(Picture courtesy of Radio NZ)