Refugees in PNG face eviction as Australian taxpayers’ dollars dry up

Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of millions of dollars of Australian taxpayer money funnelled to Papua New Guinea to look after the remaining refugees from Australian camps, with food, accommodation and security providers saying they have not been paid for months.

Four service providers contacted by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald say Australian money earmarked to pay the expenses of about 60 refugees remaining in PNG has dried up, and they are threatening to stop delivering services.

Some services, such as data and communications, have already ceased for some refugees, who were sent to Manus Island 10 years ago for offshore processing. Most now live in the capital Port Moresby.

The Home Affairs Department told the Senate in July that it had paid an undisclosed amount of Australian taxpayers’ money to the PNG government in December 2021 to deal with what it called the “residual caseload”. The money was paid as part of a “confidential bilateral arrangement” when the decade-long regional resettlement arrangement with Papua New Guinea formally ended on December 31, 2021.

Under the new deal, the PNG immigration authorities were responsible for managing the funds and providing settlement, welfare and health services until refugees found permanent settlement options. A Home Affairs spokesperson said the department had no role in the “ongoing management of, or service delivery arrangements for, individuals remaining in PNG”.

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But companies in PNG that are contracted to provide the basics of life to the group of refugees say they have not been paid for their services for months. One refugee in Port Moresby said the “stress is increasing” among a group of men, many of whom are already mentally ill.

Refugee advocates in Australia say alarm is spreading among the refugees, but it’s unclear where in the chain of suppliers the funding blockage is, or if the allocation of money from Home Affairs has run out.

Asked if there would be any further money added to the scheme, the Home Affairs spokesperson said: “As this relates to a confidential bilateral arrangement, the department will not provide further information.”

​A spokesperson for PNG immigration authorities said late on Saturday that they were in talks with all service providers to ensure that contracts under the humanitarian program were honoured. The spokesperson said they were also in discussion with the Australian government over funding arrangements for the concluding phase of the program.

The PNG migration authority “assures all clients of the cohort here in PNG, that [it] will ensure that they will continue to receive supports under the humanitarian program,” the statement said.

PNG is notoriously corruption prone, and the questions about the whereabouts of the money come after revelations in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes in July that the original Manus Island contracts had been marred by graft. A whistleblower then alleged that Australian company Paladin had paid millions of dollars to PNG officials in 2018 via a bank account in Singapore to obtain visas and work permits for Paladin employees.

“All the refugees will be evicted from their apartments very soon if Home Affairs doesn’t honour their commitments on refugees in PNG.”

Johnny Philips, refugee accommodation provider

This masthead has obtained notifications service providers sent to refugees in recent weeks, alerting them that their internet services would be cut and phone credit ended. There have also been some delays in their allowances being paid.

“There is a tussle going on between service providers and the immigration department over who gives the money,” the Port Moresby-based refugee said.

Johnny Philips, the owner of Citi Service apartments, which provides accommodation to about 20 refugees, claimed his business had not been paid by the immigration authorities since November last year.

“Home Affairs used to pay us on the first day of the month and then PNG Immigration and Citizenship Authority took over. They normally pay us well, but last year, in November, it stopped,” Philips said.

“It’s not only me, there are six, seven, eight service providers haven’t been paid as well … All the refugees will be evicted from their apartments very soon if Home Affairs doesn’t honour their commitments on refugees in PNG,” he said.

He said many of the refugees were unable to work because of mental health issues, and the serious unemployment situation in Papua New Guinea.

“Everyone is up in arms at the moment,” said Terry Tasion, the owner of MRT Holdings, another accommodation provider.

“We’ve reduced the services: the power and the TV and all of that. They can pay that through their allowances, but there are rumours that allowances will be ceased this week.”

He denied reports that his company had already forcibly evicted one family, saying they had been moved to different accommodation.

A third accommodation provider, Lodge 10, wrote to PNG officials last January saying invoices dating from December 2021 — when the responsibility for delivering services was handed to PNG — had not been paid. The underpayment amounted to 9.8 million kina ($4.2 million), according to the letter obtained by this masthead.

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Lodge 10 Manager Laurie Kemuel Paugari told The Age and the Herald the provider had not heard back from the PNG immigration authorities.

He said that “things got messy” when Home Affairs stopped paying service providers directly.

“We’re struggling to look after the refugees now,” Paugari said. “It’s not a commercial arrangement but on a humanitarian level we feel sorry for them. We will keep looking after them as long as we can.”

Security provider Andy Bawa, of Homa Security, also claimed his company had not been paid “for about six months”.

“If all of us stop providing services, then the refugees become vulnerable: no place to live, no food to eat,” he said.

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