LORENGAU – Papua New Guinea will begin to resettle refugees, three years after the Manus Island detention centre opened.

Australia’s Immigration Minister Peter Dutton welcomed the announcement, saying he would be meeting with the PNG government next week to examine the details.

Dutton said the Federal Government remained committed to ongoing support for PNG as part of the “strong working relationship” between the two countries.

“The Australian taxpayers provide considerable assistance in terms of the way in which the regional processing centre is run, in terms of the contracts and other services which are provided there,” he said.

Over the three-month period between July and September 2015, arrangements on Manus Island cost the Australian taxpayer more than $151 million.

A Senate Estimates committee was told this week that $14.21 million was spent in relation to resettling refugees, despite no resettlements taking place in that period.

Key points:

- PNG to begin refugee resettlement, welcomed by Australian government and opposition.

- Not a single refugee resettlement outcome processed by PNG government since 2012.

- Centre cost Australia more than $151 million between July-September.

Dutton could not provide a dollar figure for individual resettlements to date.

He said the announcement reinforced the message that “people who are on Manus or Nauru will not settle permanently in Australia.”

“The development here sends a very clear message to people smugglers, and that it that the government’s resolve is as strong as it’s ever been,” he said.

“We are not going to back down from the fact that we have a tough policy when it comes to Operation Sovereign Borders.”

The opposition’s shadow immigration minister Richard Marles also praised the announcement.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the resettlement of refugees will begin as the Australian government on its travel advisory site officially warns of violent clashes, lawlessness and gang rapes in Papua New Guinea.

More asylum seekers have died on Manus Island than have been resettled, as the PNG government dragged its feet on developing a resettlement policy, leaving those found to be genuine refugees in limbo, the Herald reports.

Immigration Minister Dutton on Friday said the announcement showed the PNG government was committed to allowing refugees to “get on with their lives and have a fresh start in this dynamic nation with a growing economy.”

It is unclear where the refugees, who are all single men, will be resettled.

The Australian government’s travel advice for PNG urges people to “exercise a high degree of caution” and warns of “high levels of serious crime”.

“Ethnic disputes continue to flare up around the country. Disputes can quickly escalate into violent clashes. Such clashes not only create danger within the immediate area but also promote a general atmosphere of lawlessness, with an associated increase in opportunistic crime,” it says.

The advice says car-jacking “is an ever-present threat” and “there has been an increase in reported incidents of sexual assault, including gang rape –these crimes are primarily opportunistic and occur without warning.”

Australian immigration officials confirmed in July that 129 detainees on Manus have been deemed genuine refugees.

The pending resettlement comes as the Turnbull government faces sustained pressure to alleviate the plight of refugees and asylum seekers in offshore detention, which has drawn domestic and international criticism.

As of August there were 936 asylum seekers and refugees being kept at Manus Island.

The PNG government has previously said negative Australian media coverage of asylum seekers was often broadcast or published in PNG and the public had come to see them as “pretty scary”.

Education and awareness programmes and advertising campaigns were being run in the PNG community before refugees could be resettled because “we have to turn around negative perceptions from that negative media”, a PNG government spokesman said in July this year.

In 2012 the former Labor government announced asylum seekers who arrived by boat without a visa would be denied refugee status in Australia but resettled in PNG, via assessment at Manus Island.

Since then, not one has been resettled. This is despite Australian immigration officials confirming in July this year that 129 detainees have been deemed genuine refugees.

Two asylum seekers have died – one killed during riots that swept through the detention centre and one from septicaemia after cutting his foot.

At the time, the PNG government spokesman said it was developing a national resettlement policy which “takes time and should not be rushed. This is in the interests of both the refugees and the communities into which they will resettle.”

- PNC sources