PNG opposition leader wants Manus closed

PAPUA New Guinea's opposition leader says he will mount a legal challenge to Labor's contentious asylum-seeker processing centre on Manus Island.

News of the proposed PNG Supreme Court action came yesterday as the United Nations refugee agency confirmed to The Australian it planned to visit to the island detention centre within two weeks.

Belden Namah, a former military officer, said his country's constitution did not allow the detention of anyone other than suspected criminals.

The Opposition Leader said the asylum-seekers detained on Manus Island had not breached any PNG laws, according to an ABC report.

Mr Namah said he had engaged lawyers to pursue the court action "to free the asylum-seekers who are kept on the Manus Island detention centre, to declare the entire asylum-seeker (processing centre) on Manus Island unconstitutional and have it removed".

There were yesterday 181 people detained on Manus Island, including several children.

PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has said the processing centre is consistent with the country's laws.

A spokesman from the UN High Commission for Refugees said the visit would be in line with the agency's monitoring and advisory role under the refugee convention.

"We will be undertaking a monitoring mission to the Regional Processing Centre at Manus Island, PNG, in the near future to review reception conditions at the centre and meet with asylum-seekers, service providers and government officials," the spokesman said.

Refugee advocates in Australia are concerned that telephone and internet communication out of the island had been cut after some detainees circulated images of conditions there, including asylum-seekers sleeping outside in dongas.

A spokesman for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship yesterday declined to comment on what he said was an internal matter for PNG.