澳大利亚同意关闭设在巴布亚新几内亚北部马努斯岛的寻求避难者拘留中心。
巴布亚新几内亚总理奥尼尔星期三发布声明，宣布了这项消息。他表示，在与澳大利亚移民部长达顿在莫尔兹比港会晤后，双方达成了协议。今年4月，巴布亚新几内亚最高法院裁定这个拘留中心不合法，侵犯了宪法保障的被拘留者的人身自由权。
声明未提及关闭拘留中心的确切日期。
有800多人被关押在马努斯岛的拘留中心，还有数百人被关押在瑙鲁岛的第二拘留中心。这是澳大利亚拦截企图到澳大利亚寻求庇护者的政策。这些难民被禁止在澳大利亚重新安置，即使获得难民身份也不行。
澳大利亚移民部长达顿星期三发表声明重申了这一政策，强调马努斯岛拘留中心的任何难民都不会被安置在澳大利亚。
Australia has agreed to close its detention center for asylum seekers on Papua New Guinea's northern island of Manus.
The closure was announced Wednesday in a statement by PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, who said an agreement had been reached after meeting with Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton in Port Moresby. The Pacific island nation's supreme court ruled in April that the center was illegal, as it violated the detainees constitutional right of personal liberty.
The statement offered no timetable for the center's eventual closing.
More than 800 people are being held at the Manus detention center, and hundreds more at a second detention center on the island of Nauru, as part of Canberra's policy of intercepting people attempting to sail to Australia and seek asylum. The refugees are barred from resettling in Australia, even if they are granted refugee status.
Dutton issued a statement Wednesday reaffirming that policy and emphasizing that no one from the Manus Island center will ever be settled in Australia.
