Australian taxpayers are still funding accommodation, food and expenses for about 100 asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea despite declaring an end to off-shore processing there. But they won't be resettled in Australia:
Mr Rudd and Mr O’Neill signed the controversial off-shore processing deal in July, 2013. Months later, the Coalition won the 2013 federal election and then-immigration minister Scott Morrison honed off-shore processing as a deterrence measure for people seeking to arrive in Australia by boat.
“Australia should have handled it better, especially the treatment of refugees and the repatriations, done in a timely manner.” The letter from chief migration officer Stanis Hulahau offered single men 700 kina a week for food and living expenses and 1000 kina for families, a total minimum annual cost of $1.54m for 104 men.
PNG's Supreme court ruling in 2016 on the illegality of the Manus island detention regime determined that Australia has joint responsibility for the men. “It leaves us a little bit amazed and surprised that now it’s nine years. Finished, completed. We are entering the 10th year and still there are 104 people here,” he said.
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