November 23, 2017 - 5:28 PM
CANBERRA, Australia - The Latest on Papua New Guinea's efforts to remove asylum seekers from a decommissioned camp (all times local):
12:10 p.m.
Papua New Guinea authorities say they have relocated the last asylum seekers who had refused for three weeks to leave a decommissioned immigration camp for fear of facing violence elsewhere.
Police Chief Superintendent Dominic Kakas says police and immigration officials removed all 378 men from the male-only camp on Manus Island on Thursday and Friday and took them by bus to alternate accommodations in the nearby town of Lorengau.
Refugee advocates say officials used force and destroyed asylum seekers' belongings to force them to leave.
Water, power and food supplies ended when the Manus camp officially closed on Oct. 31 based on a court ruling that Australia's policy of housing asylum seekers there was unconstitutional. But asylum seekers fear for their safety in Lorengau because of threats from local residents.
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3:16 p.m.
Papua New Guinea authorities are ratcheting up pressure on more than 300 asylum seekers to abandon a decommissioned immigration camp, where refugees reported their shelters, beds and other belongings have been destroyed.
Police Chief Superintendent Dominic Kakas says 50 police and immigration officials entered the Manus Island camp Thursday morning and persuaded 35 of the 378 men there to leave for alterative accommodation in the nearby town of Lorengau.
Water, power and food supplies ended when the Manus camp officially closed on Oct. 31, based on the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court's ruling last year that Australia's policy of housing asylum seekers there was unconstitutional.
But asylum seekers fear for their safety in Lorengau because of threats from local residents.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017