SYDNEY, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Lawyers for 302 refugees housed at Australia's immigration camp in Papua New Guinea are scrambling to Manus Island after the nation's highest court rejected their application to be returned to Australia on technical grounds.
While the number of asylum seekers attempting to reach Australia by boat, the nation's harsh immigration policies -- adopted in 2013 -- dictate they will never reach the mainland. Asylum seekers instead are turned back to their origin at sea or shipped to one of two offshore processing centers on PNG's Manus Island or the Pacific island state of Nauru.
PNG's Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the application for 302 refugees to be returned to Australia because the filing documents were signed by the group's lawyer Ben Lomai, rather than the individual claimants. Xinhua understands the decision was split 2-1, with panel's senior judge the dissenting opinion.
Had the case been successful, Australia would have been ordered to remove the refugees - who were transferred from Christmas Island to Manus Island under the former government's Pacific Solution - from PNG. Australia however would have dismissed the decision.
Lomai told Xinhua via phone on Thursday they will re-file the application for transfer no later than Wednesday next week after lawyers have scrambled to Manus Island to collect signatures over the next few days.
Failure to file will only further delay an already protracted battle against the PNG and Australian governments, with the Supreme Court due to go on recess until February next year.
"We have discussed about filing the case in the National court so that we can be able to circumvent some processes," Lomai told Xinhua, adding the refugees are disappointed at the delay.
"We also intend to name only one party, just the independent state of PNG," to expedite the case.
The application is designed to right a wrong after the nation's highest court in April ruled the original Memorandum of Understanding establishing the Manus Island centers as unconstitutional, Lomai said. The court ruled asylum seekers entering PNG were doing so against their will and having their freedom of movement hindered despite not breaking local laws.
PNG has become less enthusiastic to host the controversial Manus Island processing center over the past years over attacks to its reputation and the fact it can ill-afford the cost of refugee resettlement.
Australia has been in negotiations with third countries to resettle refugees from Nauru and Manus Island, however they remain protracted. Local media has reported New Zealand and Costa Rica are possibilities.
Asylum seekers who have been denied refugee status have been told they must go back to their country of origin.
