(Transcript from SBS World News)
More than six months after Papua New Guinea agreed to take asylum seekers intercepted on their way to Australia, little has been done to plan for the would-be refugees' futures.
A PNG politician says the nation is unlikely to assess its first asylum seeker claims before July, a full year after the asylum seeker processing deal with Australia was signed.
What will happen to those ultimately granted refugee status is still unclear.
Thea Cowie reports.
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Under the asylum seeker deal Papua New Guinea is responsible for assessing asylum seeker claims.
But that requires PNG's parliament to pass legislation.
The politician representing Manus Island in the nation's parliament, Ron Knight, says even if the process is fast-tracked it will still be some months before the first asylum seeker claims are processed.
Elaine Pearson from Human Rights Watch says that's unacceptable.
"Under the Refugee Convention, people have a right to access to fair and efficient proceedures. So you would read that to say that people should have the right to have their claims assessed in a fair and I would say, timely manner. But unfortunately what we see in this case that people are being forced to wait months, if not years. And it's still unclear exactly what will happen to them.
The Australian government says it is building accommodation on Manus Island to house people found to be refugees.
But the island's outspoken MP, Ron Knight, is adamant refugees won't be staying there long-term.
"I can tell you right now from our local people's point of view there will be no asylum seekers settled in Manus province. We're quite happy to look after them and process them but we will not settle them here. From my point of view if they are found to be genuine refugees then they will be taken to the new processing centre which is being built in Lorengau town and kept there in minimum security level and from then they will be found places to be repatriated to."
The Abbott government says it's in the process of "salvaging resettlement arrangements" from the deal PNG did with the former Rudd government.
But Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says ultimately it's up to Papua New Guinea to decide what rights refugees will have if they're allowed to stay.
"In Manus they would have freedom of movement around Manus. They would have work rights and all of those normal things you would expect. In terms of access to other programs and things of that nature, that is for the Papua New Guinean government. JOURNALIST: Can they leave the island? MORRISON: Again, they are matters for the government of Papua New Guinea and when we inherited this arrangement it was a blank sheet of paper and there is still a large amount of work to be done."
Chairman of the PNG branch of Transparency International, Lawrence Stephens, says the government is providing little to no information about its plans for refugees.
Mr Lawrence says if they are allowed to make their new lives there, refugees are likely to do well.
But he says he worries there are not enough opportunities for everyone, and it will be locals who suffer.
"I fear the disadvantage it would create in Papua New Guinea. Refugees tend to be educated and striving to get somewhere in their lives. They tend to contribute in any place they go to. But they would also be very competitive I fear which and that is likely then to deny Papua New Guinean opportunities to move forward in the commercial or industrial areas as outsiders take over the roles."
Manus MP Ron Knight says only refugees with certain skills and training should be allowed to stay in PNG, and Australia should find a third country to resettle the rest.
"Obviously we have a brain drain here too. Most of our smart people and our technical people are getting employment in Australia and America and Canada. And we need good doctors and good lawyers and people who can help us: engineers, scientists. If there are people like that over there then fair enough I think we can make use of them. But economic migrants and that I don't think they will be encouraged to stay in Papua New Guinea."
Elaine Pearson from Human Rights Watch says under the Refugee Convention countries can't pick and choose who they grant protection to.
And she says the lack of information about refugees' futures is dangerous.
"This policy appears to be what they've called a 'return-oriented environment' and that's to say that they're trying to make the environment so difficult, so uncertain for people that it will encourage them to go home rather than to stay on in PNG. And this is really dangerous for refugees who have fled places of persecution. You're basically putting them between a rock and a hard place."
Australia's Immigration Minister and the government of Papua New Guinea have not responded to SBS requests for comment.
