PNG's Manus Island Detention Centre Has Just Been Ruled Illegal

Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court has just ruled Australia's Manus Island detention centre is illegal because it violates the country's constitution.

The court has told the Australian Government it needs to end the detention of all asylum seekers on PNG as soon as possible.

The PNG Supreme Court has ruled that the Manus Island Detention Camp is ILLEGAL. Time to bring those left there to Australia to be cared for

— Sarah Hanson-Young (@sarahinthesen8)April 26, 2016

Manus Island currently holds 905 male asylum seekers, half of which have already been found to be genuine refugees. These men have been told they need to relocate to a transit centre elsewhere on the island but many have refused because they fear violence from the local community. Earlier Tuesday morning, it was announcement that these refugees in Manus would be allowed to leave the centre during the day, under very strict conditions.

The ABC is reporting that those on Manus whose asylum applications fail are being held in separate part of the centre and are not allowed to leave. As they will not be resettled in PNG, their only option is to return to the country they originally fled from, which 536 asylum seekers have already decided to do in the past 1.5 years.

The Supreme Court's decision comes just a day after staff, including Medicins San Frontieres Australia president Dr Stewart Condon, spoke out about the Department of Immigration's response to the death of Iranian asylum seeker Hamid Khazaei. The 24-year-old had a treatable infection that was ignored by centre staff, and subsequently suffered three heart attacks before finally being transferred to PNG's capital Port Moresby for treatment.

Staff who blow the whistle on practices in Australia's offshore detention centres can face up to two years in prison, under new laws enacted by the immigration department in 2015.

A ruling on another Manus Island death came last week, when the two men who killed Reza Barati received a five-year suspended sentence with two years time already served. As VICE's Chris Shearer wrote, "Joshua Kaluvia, a former Salvation Army employee at the centre, repeatedly bashed the 23-year-old Iranian in the head with a piece of wood with a nail in it before Louie Efi, who had worked for G4S, dropped a large rock on his head."

VICE has sought comment from the Department of Immigration. More as this story develops.

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