Lawyer defends clients

By CHARLES MOI
LAWYER Ben Lomai, who is representing 731 asylum seekers at the Regional Processing Centre on Manus Island, will ask the court to stop the PNG Immigration from deporting his clients.
This move comes after two men from Nepal were given deportation orders by the PNG Immigration at 4am yesterday.
Lomai told The National that the reason for an interim injunction against the deportation was that his clients had an interest in matters before the courts in PNG.
“They (PNG Immigration) can’t just deport them like that,” Lomai said.
“We need to stop the deportation so that those matters can be resolved properly in court.
“What happened is that there was a Nepalese who was put on a flight this (yesterday) morning and I believe he should be here in Port Moresby but I haven’t confirmed where he actually is right now.
“I will get back to my contacts to see if they can identify his whereabouts.”
Lomai explained that an earlier case in the Supreme Court had been struck out by the court which meant that an earlier court order which stopped deportation was also removed.
“That means that right now there is no order in place to stop the deportation,” he said.
“The only thing now is to go back and ask for the orders so that they (court) can grant the orders to stop deportation of the two men.”
Lomai said there were three separate court proceedings concerning the asylum seekers that were still before the Courts.
According to the private lawyer, one proceeding was before the Supreme Court while two were in the National Court.
Lomai said he would have to choose which proceeding to file the application for an injunction to stop the deportation.
He plans to have the application filed by today and secure a hearing as soon as possible.
Kurdish Iran Journalist Behrouz Boochani told The National yesterday that two asylum seekers from Nepal housed in the Mike Compound in the centre were deported because they were deemed to have a negative status.
“People with negative status are in shock and they are trying to know what will happen,” Boochani said.
He described the situation in the centre as “scary,” since the deportation began.