Pato, team assess Queensland facilities

A GOVERNMENT delegation is in Queensland to observe the immigration facilities at Weipa as part of planning to build a permanent regional processing centre for asylum seekers on Manus Island.
Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Rimbink Pato yesterday said the team was visiting the Australian facility to assess the size and complexity of the centre and plan for the one that would be built in Manus soon.
The delegation, Pato said, was impressed with the conditions and amenities of the centre.
He said the proposed Manus centre would be built to similar high standards.
“We are keen to get the asylum seekers out of the temporary facility and into the permanent regional processing centre as quickly as possible,” he said. 
Pato said local construction companies would be engaged to build the centre.
The minister said hosting the regional processing centre, PNG was taking a leading role in regional efforts to deal with the serious issues relating to asylum seekers.
“The centre on Manus provides protection and shelter for people with genuine refugee claims, in accordance with our international obligations.
“We are seeking to balance the ‘no advantage policy’ but still maintain a facility to assist genuine refugees who are treated with genuine compassion, dignity and respect.
“The object of the ‘no advantage policy’ is to discourage asylum seekers from undertaking dangerous sea voyages to Australia,” Pato said.
In recent years, more than 600 asylum seekers have tragically lost their lives at sea in the region.
Pato said PNG was putting in place a new regulation
under the Migration Act that provided guidelines for determining the refugee status of the asylum seekers at the Manus centre.
“We have already started initial screening interviews to gather information that will be used in refugee status determination process,” he said.
“Those who are found to be refugees will be resettled in safe countries in due course. Those who are not will be sent home.”
Pato said following the quarantine period, daily community excursions had started for the asylum seekers at the centre.
Pato said this programme of escorted excursions would be expanded with hopes that the asylum seekers would make a positive contribution to Manus’s rich cultural life.
“Manus Island has a strong history of welcoming asylum seekers and other people. I am confident that there will be warm and constructive interaction between the local people and the asylum seekers,” Pato said. 
Meanwhile, the Australian Immigration Department has confirmed that just over A$90 million (K198 million) has
been spent operating the temporary centres on Manus and Nauru.
At a Senate hearing in Canberra on Monday night, officials also confirmed that up to last December,  a further A$5.2 million had been spent transferring asylum seekers to the sites.
Since the Government first announced its plans to re-open the two processing centres – which carry an estimated combined price tag of $2.9 billion – it has been heavily criticised for diverting millions of dollars of aid funding to help pay for the costs of processing asylum claims.
Despite the criticism, Immigration Department officials said they have not ruled out using aid funding to further improve infrastructure and services.
Four hundred and fifteen asylum seekers are currently being held on Nauru, with a further 274 in PNG.