PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Australia has agreed to close the controversial asylum seeker detention centre on Manus Island off the remote north coast of Papua New Guinea.

But refugee and Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani, who has been held in the detention centre for more than three years, told the Guardian that the men on Manus were wary of “good news”.

Boochani said the news gave the refugees and asylum seekers held on Manus no detail on their futures.

“They did not mention that when they will close this hell prison. We want to know when exactly we will get freedom and where we will go. This is our right that know about our future.

The future of the Manus detention has been in doubt since the PNG supreme court ruled in April that the detention centre was “illegal and unconstitutional”.

Following that decision, superficial changes were made to the detention regimen, but the men remain detained still, they live in the same compounds, behind steel fences, and are not free to leave if and when they choose, only on a bus run by the detention centre operators, the Guardian says.

A second court challenge to the detention regime – arguing that the detention centre breaches PNG’s constitutional guarantee to liberty – is set to go before the bench of the same court next week, and a judgement is expected quickly.

O’Neill said this week that he would uphold the initial court ruling.

“The supreme court has delivered its ruling and our government is complying with this decision. I look forward to further updates as the process of closing the centre moves forward.”

Even before the court ruling, O’Neill has wanted to close the detention centre.

Visiting Australia in March, he said the Manus detention centre was “a problem” that had “done a lot of damage” and that his country did not have the resources to resettle all the refugees held there.

Human Rights Watch Australia director Elaine Pearson said the move to close the Manus detention centre was welcome but “long overdue”.

“These men should immediately be moved to Australia or a safe third country, not simply shunted down the road to a transit centre or moved to Nauru or Cambodia.

“Nearly a thousand men on Manus have already lost three or more years of their lives locked up in limbo for no good reason.

“They’ve endured dirty, cramped conditions, inadequate medical care and violence. Finally, it is time to let them move on with their lives in safety and dignity.”

Spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition Ian Rintoul said he was concerned the PNG and Australian governments were seeking to pre-empt the upcoming supreme court hearing, by suggesting the centre was slated for imminent closure.

“At Monday’s hearing, lawyers for the Manus asylum seekers and refugees will be seeking orders for the unconditional release of all detainee and the return of all of them to Australia.

“Anything less than the unconditional release and return to Australia will be a denial of justice. The men should be brought to Australia.

“It is sheer bloody-mindedness by the Australian government that has kept these people in detention.”

Efforts to resettle refugees in PNG have foundered. Barely a handful have been resettled outside the centre and almost all have been forced to return to detention after being assaulted, robbed, and in one case, left homeless in other parts of the country.

Australia’s entire offshore regime has been under unprecedented pressure since the publication of the “Nauru Files” by the Guardian last week.

The publication the files – more than 2000 leaked incident reports detailing systemic physical and sexual abuses, humiliating treatment and harsh conditions – has refocused public attention on conditions in detention, sparked calls for a royal commission, and led Labor and the Greens to promise a new Senate inquiry into offshore detention.

- PNC sources