Manus Island: Australian refugee centre a ‘powder keg’ ready to explode

Confrontation is looming in Papua New Guinea, where more than 700 men are refusing to leave an Australian immigration processing centre.

What is the problem?

The centre on Manus Island was set to be cleared on Monday, ahead of its formal closure today, but many of the refugees and asylum seekers claim they'll be attacked if they leave the security of the compound's wire fences by locals who don't want them there.

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More than 550 refugees and 167 other asylum seekers have been detained on the island for more than a year and half after the Australian government rejected their applications, leaving them in a legal limbo.

Former Manus Island MP Ron Knight told CNN the sudden presence of refugees, all men, from Iran, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Myanmar, in a town of just 6,000 people, caused suspicion and conflict. The broadcaster described the situation as a "powder keg" ready to explode.

In August a mass demonstration outside the Commonwealth government offices in Sydney called for an independent inquiry after a fifth man died at the camp.

Since they were first opened, a series of deaths at the detention centres has led human rights organisations to voice serious concerns about the policies and conditions at the camps.

Why do the camps exist?

Canberra maintains detention centres outside its territory as part of a blanket ban on people arriving by boat and settling in Australia.

As well as Manus, which was opened in 2001 as part of the then Prime Minister John Howard's "Pacific Solution," Australia has detention centres on Christmas Island and Nauru in the South Pacific to ensure that refugees and illegal immigrants can be processed without setting foot on Australian shores. Asylum seekers judged to be genuine refugees are resettled in Papua New Guinea, Nauru or Cambodia.

In 2008 the Labor government closed the Manus camp but it reopened in 2012 after a rise in the number of boat arrivals peaked in 2013, carrying more than 20,500 people. Two years later, the government announced that all boat arrivals had stopped.

Where did the boats come from?

Many would-be refugees from countries that include Afghanistan, Sudan's Darfur region, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria paid people smugglers in Indonesia to help them reach the northern coast of Australia, often in unsafe boats. Scores of people are known to have died while making the dangerous journey.

What does Australia say?

The waters between Australia and Southeast Asia are patrolled by the country's navy and coast guards, and boats are often intercepted and "towed back" to Indonesia or elsewhere. In 2013, the government initiated 'Operation Sovereign Borders', putting the military in full control of asylum operations. Despite condemnation from human rights organisations and the international community, polls have continually showed widespread public support for the policies.

Is the detention of refugees legal?

In 2015, the UN refugee agency declared the tow-back policy may breach international law and has repeatedly accused Australia of shirking its obligations to refugees fleeing war and conflict. The Australian Human Rights Commission has also concluded that the detention of the children of asylum seekers causes them physical and mental harm and is a clear violation of international human rights law, the BBC reports.

"The aims of stopping people smugglers and deaths at sea do not justify the cruel and illegal means adopted," the commission's president, Gillian Triggs, wrote in 2015 "Australia is better than this."