THE UNITED Nations refugee agency has detailed five major concerns about the federal government's plan to send asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea's Manus Island in the coming weeks.
The concerns are detailed in a letter from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, that was tabled in Federal Parliament this week as a resolution approving the designation of PNG as a ''regional processing country'' passed in both houses.
They include PNG's failure to sign international treaties against torture and for the protection of stateless people, and the absence of any national legal or regulatory framework to address refugee issues in PNG.
In the letter, to Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, Mr Guterres says the arrangements for offshore processing on Manus Island - like those on Nauru - are between the countries involved and that the UNHCR ''would not have any operational or active role to play in their implementation''.
Dated October 9, the letter also describes an absence of ''any national capacity'' in PNG to implement international obligations. ''We recognise that efforts are presently being made to identify and train a small cadre of officers in asylum and refugee issues,'' Mr Guterres writes.
''Over time, capacity will improve but, depending on the scale and complexity of the task of processing cases and protecting refugees under the bilateral arrangements, it will likely remain insufficient for an important period of time.''
The agency also says the risk of refoulement, or return to their place of persecution, remains in spite of written undertakings that it would not take place. This was because of the porous and often unregulated nature of PNG's borders and the limited understanding by border officials of PNG's protection responsibilities.
The final concern related to the quality of protection for asylum seekers and refugees, especially because of the ''very limited opportunities for sustainable local integration''.
The letter also highlights the agency's reservations about the ''no-advantage test'' that is intended to apply to those sent to Manus Island and Nauru, whereby they will remain at these locations for the time it would have taken for them to be processed and resettled from transit countries.
It say the time taken to resettle cases referred to the UNHCR in south-east Asia may not be a ''suitable comparator''; that there is no ''average'' time for resettlement from transit countries; and that the test appears to based on the longer term aspiration for regional processing to be in place.
A spokesman for Mr Bowen said the government would ''take on board'' the issues raised by Mr Guterres.
He said the government would work with the PNG government on the setting up of the processing centre and expected the first transfers to occurring ''in coming weeks''.
''Of course, PNG has already has given Australia the assurances around the principle of non-refoulement and the assessment of asylum claims in line with the Refugee Convention.''
The federal government has defended its plan to send asylum seeker boat arrivals to Papua New Guinea after a warning from the United Nations that the country is not yet ready for the transfers.
In a letter sent to Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres said PNG had neither the "legal safeguards nor the competence" to process transferred asylum seekers on Manus Island.
Mr Guterres said PNG was not yet party to the UN conventions on torture and statelessness and warned the nation lacked the necessary legal framework to address refugee issues.
There was also a risk of local PNG authorities sending asylum seekers back to their countries of origin, particularly given the "porous and often unregulated" nature of its borders.
He concluded the country did not have the "legal safeguards nor the competence or capacity to shoulder alone the responsibility of protecting and processing asylum seekers transferred by Australia".
"At best, we would see the transfers as a shared and joint legal responsibility under the Refugee Convention and other applicable human rights instruments," Mr Guterres said in the letter dated October 9.
A spokesperson for the minister said the government was still on track to send the first group of asylum seekers to Manus Island within weeks.
"As part of the designation process we have consulted with and tabled correspondence by the UNHCR – and as always, we take on board issues they have raised," the spokesperson said.
"We continue to work with the PNG government on implementation and expect the first transfers ... occurring in coming weeks, with further details to be announced in due course."
They added that PNG had assured the Australian government it would assess asylum claims in-line with the Refugee Convention.
Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young accused Mr Bowen of ignoring expert advice about its offshore processing regime.
"The letter has revealed just how inadequate the situation on PNG is, where there isn't even one person with the relevant experience and training that is required to process refugees," she said in a statement.
"Desperate and vulnerable people are still doing whatever they can to seek asylum and that obviously won't change until we give them safer pathways."
The government ultimately hopes to be able to send up to 600 asylum seekers to Manus Island, which the Rudd government closed in 2008.
Meanwhile, another 40 male asylum seekers were transferred to Nauru's offshore processing facility on Friday.
The 17 Iraqis and 23 Sri Lankans will now be settled into their accommodation at the temporary facility.
This takes the total number of people transferred to Nauru to 254.
AAP
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