Asylum seekers aiming for Australia try to prevent transfer to tiny Nauru

Thursday May 5, 2016

Participants observe a minute silence during a candle light vigil for two refugees, a Somali woman and an Iranian man who set themselves on fire on the remote Pacific island of Nauru, during a candle light vigil in Sydney on Wednesday. More than 750 asylum seekers held in a Papua New Guinea detention camp launched legal action on Wednesday to be moved to Australia after a court in the Pacific nation found the centre unconstitutional. - Photo - AFP/Saeed Khan

Sydney: Lawyers for more than 700 asylum seekers seeking a new life in Australia but held instead in Papua New Guinea filed an injunction on Wednesday aiming to halt their transfer to a much-criticised detention centre on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru.

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Under Australia's hardline immigration policy, asylum seekers intercepted trying to reach the country by boat after paying people smugglers are sent for processing to a camp in Manus Island in Papua New Guinea or to Nauru.

Papua New Guinea ordered the closure of the Manus camp after the country's Supreme Court ruled the facility unlawful, leaving the fate of the 850 people held there up in the air. Australia and Papua New Guinea each claim each other is responsible for settling the hundreds held on Manus.

The injunction, filed in Australia's High Court, calls for the asylum seekers to be sent to Australia and not to Nauru, Matthew Byrnes, one of the lawyers acting on behalf of the majority of those held on Manus, said.

"We are hopeful that we will be successful with this filing," he said.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull maintains the asylum seekers will not be resettled in Australia. The detention centre on Nauru houses about 500 people and has been widely criticised by the United Nations and human rights agencies for harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse.

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