PNG police have entered the decommissioned Manus Island detention centre this morning in an attempt to remove asylum seekers who have refused to leave, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has confirmed.
Multiple men at the centre have reported on social media that they were given one hour to move, with some claiming the police officers were acting aggressively and destroying property.
The police action follows several attempts over the past three weeks to get the remaining asylum seekers, estimated at about 380, to leave the centre and move to new facilities which the Australian government has constructed elsewhere on the island.
'The tenant who won't move out of the house'
Mr Dutton said the Turnbull government was keen for people to move out of the processing centre.
"I think it's outrageous that people are still there and they have trashed the facility, they're living in squalor," he told 2GB radio.
"The Australian taxpayers have paid about $10 million for a new facility and we want people to move."
Mr Dutton again reiterated the men will never be coming to Australia.
"It's like the tenant that won't move out of the house when you build a new house for them to move into," he said.
Mr Dutton blamed refugee advocates for pushing the refugees to stay in an effort to get media coverage, but repeated his assertion that none of the refugees would ever be permitted to come to Australia.
