Aid deal must be maintained

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Manus Island MP Ronnie Knight said he expects Australia to keep funding projects it agreed to as part of the refugee processing detention centre deal.

The imprisonment of about 850 men by Australia on Manus Island for offshore processing was declared illegal under the PNG constitution by the court earlier this week.

“Fulfilling their part of the agreement to continue to finish our roads and do what they promised,” Knight said.

He warned of consequences if Australia withdrew from those projects.

“If they do that, then maybe next time down the track when they ask for help again it might be the other way around. We won’t assist them,” he said.

Manus Island locals are concerned about their future as the processing centre is the island’s largest employer, with many coming from outlying islands or other parts of Papua New Guinea, and it is a major customer for local businesses.

“I think it’s a definite blow,” resident Garry Korup said.

“Now that it’s closed we’d like the government to have alternatives. How do we go on to make a living?”

Many residents of Manus Island were initially unhappy with the decision to reopen the centre, and were angry at Australia for sending people it did not want to PNG.

But some of the Australian aid packages from the regional processing deal did filter through to Manus.

The main town of Lorengau got a new market and the island’s main road is being upgraded.

Korup said that changed people’s perceptions of the detention centre.

“I think the impact of the project has given us a few hopes, like the sealing of a stretch of road, we have a new market, we get constant assistance to our general hospital here,” he said.

“The government will have to look for alternatives, definitely.”

- ABC