Manus Island Asylum Seeker center will survive court challenge: Kua

Extremely hot. Photo credit: AAP

Papua New Guinea's attorney-general says Australia's Manus Island asylum seeker facility will survive a court challenge.

Kerenga Kua was responding to a threat from PNG's opposition leader Belden Namah that he was planning to challenge the legality of the facility in court.

Mr Namah says people can only be detained for long periods in PNG if they've broken the law.

He plans to take his challenge to the country's Supreme Court.

But Mr Kua is standing by the legality of the processing centre.

"I don't think this court challenge will go too far," he told AAP on Wednesday.

"We are not detaining anybody.

"This is not a detention centre and there is no detention in any such facilities."

The attorney-general said it would be difficult for PNG to find accommodation for asylum seekers in the community rather than holding them in processing centres.

"We have a tight budget with a lot of domestic pressures on us," Mr Kua said.

"We're trying our best to be as civil as possible.

"(But) I do not know of any other (cases) in the world that people in that circumstance are kept in a proper facility and given room service."

He accused Mr Namah of damaging PNG's national and domestic image in his "trigger happy" threat to go to court.

Mr Namah plans to file two separate applications to free the asylum seekers being held on Nauru and to close the facility on constitutional grounds.

"Why it's important that I take this action is that just to show that our constitution is still supreme," he told ABC radio.

"We can't go outside of our constitution, outside of our laws to try and please our friends."

A spokeswoman for Australia's immigration department declined to comment, saying it was a matter for the PNG government.

Australia has so far transferred 181 asylum seekers to the Manus Island processing centre since reopening the Howard-era facility in November 2012.

AAP