About 1700 former Manus Island detainees including many of those involved in a stand-off in the closed centre will soon be paid their share of $70 million in compensation.
The individuals stand to receive anything from a few thousand dollars to close to $100,000 under Australia's largest human rights class action settlement.
A Victorian Supreme Court judge on Friday granted approval for payments to be made.
The court heard the money cannot de distributed until any reviews of individual compensation amounts have been completed, making mid-December the earliest date the funds can begin to be paid out.
Those who spent the longest period in detention will receive higher individual payments.
In total 1691 detainees among 1878 group members in the class action, who represent the majority of people detained in the offshore immigration detention centre since 2012, registered to share in the settlement.
Detainees' barrister Fiona Forsyth said it was an excellent take-up particularly considering the circumstances of the group members and the obvious difficulties with communication.
Justice Cameron Macaulay allowed 31 late registrations and the reinstatement of one person who had previously decided to opt out of the group.
"I say that because of the relatively modest effect which it will have on the group members to date yet the potentially quite significant amount of compensation it would deliver to those late registrants were I to allow them to be registered."
Justice Macaulay noted many of the group members are spread around the world and it has sometimes been difficult to determine their contact details.
Most of the compensation was for false imprisonment after the PNG Supreme Court ruled their detention on Manus was illegal, meaning the length of time each detainee spent in the centre will influence the amount they receive.
The Australian government and centre operators settled the class action in June without any admission of liability.
