PNG Police End Long Standoff with Refugees at Australia Detention Camp

Videos and photos posted by the detainees showed police moving through the camp on Manus Island, swinging long metal batons and pushing men towards buses bound for PNG-run centres elsewhere on the island, AFP reported.

Photos showed men with some scrapes and cuts they said came from being hit and dragged by PNG police, but no serious injuries were reported.

Several hours later, PNG and Australian officials confirmed the camp on a former PNG naval base had been emptied, as ordered by the PNG Supreme Court in a ruling last year that found the Canberra-run detention centre violated the country's constitution.

"It's empty. The military have taken back their base," PNG police spokesman Dominic Kakas told AFP.

Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton welcomed the news, and accused refugees and their advocates of making "inaccurate and exaggerated claims of violence and injuries" during the police operation.

Canberra set up the Manus camp and a similar complex on the Pacific island nation of Nauru under a policy of "offshore detention" designed to choke off the flow of migrants trying to reach Australia by boat.

The camps were described as "processing centres" where authorities would determine the legal status of detainees and then arrange resettlement for verified refugees.

But the resettlement policy stalled, with an agreement reached with former US president Barack Obama to take a number of the refugees put on hold when Donald Trump was elected a year ago. Only 24 refugees have moved to the US.

Around 600 men, most of them with refugee status, were left stuck on Manus since 2013 with diminishing hope of resettlement.

Following the PNG court ruling, Australia declared Manus closed on October 31 and shut off supplies of food, water and electricity to the camp so detainees would move voluntarily to the PNG-managed "transition centres".

The refugees refused to move, fearing for their safety among a local population where many opposed their presence.

They also worried that once no longer under Australian control they would lose any leverage they had for obtaining resettlement in third countries.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in welcoming the end of the confrontation at Manus Friday, did stress that the refugees were now under PNG authority.

"They're complying with the lawful directions of the PNG authorities and moving to the alternative facilities available to them and that's as they should," he said.

"That is precisely what you should do if you're in a foreign country, you should comply with the laws of that other country."

Turnbull's government has come under sharp international criticism during the standoff in Manus as conditions for the detainees deteriorated.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR expressed special concern this week when PNG police moved into the camp to force remaining refugees to leave.

"UNHCR reminds Australia of its obligation to take full responsibility and provide effective protection, safety and lasting solutions for all refugees and asylum-seekers in cooperation with the Papua New Guinean authorities," the organization said in a statement Thursday.

After Australia withdrew from the Manus camp, PNG police initially engaged in an effort dubbed "Helpim Friends" to entice refugees to move voluntarily to the new centres.

About 200 men complied, but 400 remained, leading to police raids Thursday and Friday to forcibly clear the camp.

Amy Frew, a lawyer at the Australia-based Human Rights Law Centre, said the violent resolution of the standoff bode ill for the refugees' future.

"After four and a half years of limbo and uncertainty they still have nowhere safe to go," she said.

"This morning's actions show that whatever they do, wherever they go, their safety cannot be guaranteed until they are evacuated from Papua New Guinea."