Power and water cut off for refugees on Manus as Dutton confirms closure

Refugees in some compounds inside the Manus Island immigration detention centre have had the power, water, toilets and phones cut off while they are still living in the camp.

As 57 vigils – demanding “evacuate now” – were held across Australia on Wednesday night to mark four years since the introduction of a regional resettlement policy for boat-borne asylum seekers, the situation at the Manus Island centre grows increasingly chaotic.

Compounds within the centre are being progressively shut down, even while people are still living in them.

The withdrawal of basic services – including electricity, water and phone lines – is being used to force people out of the centre, which the Papua New Guinea and Australian governments want closed by 31 October.

Peter Dutton, the Australian immigration minister, confirmed on Wednesday evening that the centre would close by the end of October.

“Manus Island is due to close by the end of October. I’ve been very clear about that and that is what we’re going to achieve,” Dutton told the Nine Network, adding the timing relies on the United States accepting asylum seekers after 30 September. However, the US deal has foundered after the US hit its 50,000 cap for refugee resettlement this year and officials abruptly leaving their on-island interviews on Nauru two weeks early.

Authorities want refugees to move to the Australian-built transit centre near the township of Lorengau, but the majority of refugees are refusing to go, saying they are not safe.

A notice posted inside the detention centre on Tuesday says that because refugees have moved themselves to Bravo and Charlie compounds within the centre and refused entreaties to leave “the power has now been turned off to Bravo and Charlie compounds. This means the phones located in Bravo has (sic) been affected. BRS will undertake electrical work to reinstate the phones after all residents have moved out of Bravo compound”.

“Power will remain off in Charlie compound”.

Staff inside the centre say about 20 refugees are inside the compounds and refusing to leave.

The Guardian has contacted PNG’s immigration authority for comment, but has not received a response.

Wednesday marked four years since the announcement by the Rudd government that no asylum seeker who arrived in Australia by boat would ever be settled in Australia.

Kevin Rudd, now President of the Asia Society Policy Institute, took to Twitter to defend the offshore processing and the regional resettlement arrangement he struck with PNG.

“July 2013 Agreement with PNG was for 1year only. Refugees should’ve been resettled in Oz by Abbott/Turnbull 3 yrs ago,” he wrote.

Rudd also reposted a 2016 article he wrote which said that refugees had been “left to rot” on Manus by the governments which followed his, and that they should be resettled immediately.

Rudd said the agreement he signed with PNG, which included provisions for housing, health and education, was only for 12 months and after that, asylum seekers could have been resettled in New Zealand or Australia.

He blamed the Coalition for turning the 12-month agreement into a permanent agreement, refusing offers from New Zealand to take some refugees. Rudd said he was only in office for two months after the deal and under the Coalition, implementation fell down appallingly.

“Frankly, the bottom line is these poor folk should have been resettled in either New Zealand or Australia or elsewhere three years ago,” Rudd told the ABC. “The cases could have been easily assessed within a 12-month period, the fact that it has gone on so long is plainly unacceptable.”

But when he signed the deal with PNG and later Nauru, Rudd said: “No matter where people smugglers try to land asylum seekers by boat in Australia, they will not be settled in Australia. This is our core principal.”

Asked about his statements at the time, Rudd said on Thursday that with deaths of asylum seekers at sea, the government had to send a clear message.

“There was a requirement by us as a responsible government to send a clear message to people smugglers that we were changing policy,” he said.

The Coalition government under both Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull have consistently blamed Labor for border “chaos”.

“We have seen elsewhere what happens when nations lose control of their borders,” Turnbull told the Australian last month. “We cannot afford to let this happen again. We will not let it happen again.”

The Greens immigration spokesman, Nick McKim, said the declared tactic of pressuring refugees to leave compounds was evidence of the Australian government’s “willingness to engage in blatant human rights abuses in order to coerce refugees”.

“If power, water and communications with families were denied to Australian prisoners in an Australian prison there would rightly be calls for a royal commission.

“The men on Manus have had their rights and freedoms stolen from them by the Labor and Liberal parties, and are now being tortured to force them into danger. Enough is enough. They need to be evacuated to Australia.”

Marking four years since Rudd’s regional resettlement arrangement, the Refugee Council of Australia chief executive, Paul Power, has told the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, in a letter he had “made his point” on stopping boats, but that the offshore islands of Manus and Nauru needed to be immediately closed.

Power wrote the refugees in Australia’s offshore detention centres were Australia’s legal and moral responsibility.

“As more of the people sent to Nauru and PNG have been given refugee status, I have taken opportunities to discuss their situation quietly with officials of other governments and UN agencies. In every single conversation, it has been emphasised to me that the protection of these refugees is Australia’s responsibility and Australia should not expect other nations to take on this responsibility, particularly given the current scale of global displacement.”

Power told the prime minister his government had “made its point” on its capacity to physically stop boats reaching Australia.

“There is no need to prolong the suffering, uncertainty and fear of those who have now been held for between three and four years. Ultimately, the only practical and decent thing for the Australian government to do is to provide ongoing protection for those currently being held in the offshore processing arrangements in PNG and Nauru – and to do so urgently.”

The Manus and Nauru processing centres were reopened in 2012 under the Gillard government, but 13 July marks the date of the policy shift – under Rudd – prohibiting any asylum seeker who arrived by boat from ever resettling in Australia.

Despite consistent revelations of physical violence – including murder – sexual abuse of women and children, allegations of torture by guards, medical neglect leading to death and catastrophic rates of mental health damage, self-harm and suicide attempts, both of Australia’s offshore processing centres remain operational.

Nauru will continue as an “open centre” indefinitely, but the Manus centre – ruled illegal by Papua New Guinea’s supreme court 15 months ago – will close on 31 October under pressure from the PNG government and from the private contractors running the centre, who have refused to continue working there.

Roughly 2,000 people remain on Australia’s offshore processing islands, and figures released under Senate estimates questioning show that the two camps have cost $4.895bn to build and run.

The Department of Immigration last month agreed to pay $70m in compensation to 1,905 men it illegally detained men on Manus in damaging and dangerous conditions, but did not admit liability.