Papua New Guinea has set some preconditions for Australia to address and adhere to before the Manus Regional Processing Centre closes operation on October 31.
Acting Chief Migration Officer, Solomon Kantha, told the Post-Courier that the governments of PNG and Australia are working on these preconditions set by the Government of Australia.
Mr Kantha also advised that the Immigration and Citizenship Office has put together a submission to go before Cabinet, specifically for further directions on issues that need urgent addressing before the closure of the centre.
He also clarified that the broad spectrum contracts to the Manus Processing Centre will cease on October 31, hence the closure of the centre and accommodation arrangements for the remaining 600 refugees have to be sorted before the closure.
“There are pre-conditions to the closure, and we working with the Australians on this,” Mr Kantha said.
“Accommodation arrangements are being done and should be ready before we can move anyone out. They will move out of Lombrum and go to East Lorengau.
“The way forward now is that we are going to discuss at the official level and yes, there is already a submission to NEC, the direction on the way forward for Manus.
“The Cabinet will make the decision and consider these issues that we have included in the submission.
“The PNG Government is putting its preconditions, and we are saying that we have to ensure that everything is addressed like the concerns by the Human Rights, to name a few.
“We don’t want to come up with a rushed process that would create further problems. We just want a smooth process to happen, but for movement to happen, we are pushing the Australians for the contractors to have arrangements in place before anyone moves out.
“Our submission to NEC is for the government to give us further directions this week and next week, and in the meantime at the officials’ level we are pushing for the review.”