Centre to be transferred to department

IMMIGRATION and Border Security Minister Westley Nukundj says the facility that was used as the refugee processing centre in Manus will be transferred to the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (DHERST) this week for the establishment of a technical college.
He was responding to questions by Manus Governor Charlie Benjamin on when the transfer of the facility would be made.
Benjamin said the intention for the centre to be built at East Lorengau and not Lombrum was so that at the end of the refugee processing, the facility would go to the provincial government to be turned into a college.
Nukundj said under the refugee resettlement arrangement, the refugees were supposed to be processed there but now the refugees had been moved to be processed at the Bomana Immigration Centre.
“The governor is correct in saying that the facility is left idle there,” he said.
“The National Executive Council, through a decision, has directed Immigration to transfer the facility over to DHERST.