Asylum seekers stranded in Papua New Guinea have been threatened with eviction if an alleged $110,000 rental arrears debt is not paid, leading to urgent calls for the Australian government to intervene to prevent them becoming “homeless”.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) wrote to the home affairs department revealing that refugee families with 10 children at Latitude apartments in Port Moresby face eviction on Friday unless the bill is paid by Thursday.
A further three refugees and one child at the East Boroko apartments have also been threatened with eviction.
Those facing eviction are part of a cohort of nearly 100 people including 44 men who sought asylum in Australia but remain in PNG – having been previously detained at Australia’s detention centre on Manus Island before it was ruled unlawful by PNG’s supreme court in 2016 – along with 17 partners and more than 30 children.
In 2021, the Morrison government struck a secret deal for the refugees and asylum seekers to stay in Port Moresby after Manus Island was closed. Funding was fully spent in the first six months and the deal was terminated by mutual agreement in December 2021.
In July, Guardian Australia revealed the Albanese government was preparing to strike a new funding deal with PNG to support asylum seekers after the country threatened to send them back to Australia unless a new agreement was signed.
A lockout notice from an accommodation services provider, seen by Guardian Australia, demands $292,659 kina, about A$110,000, in “accumulated total rental arrears” for six units “in breach” of a lease agreement.
The notice demands payment by 12 September or tenants will be evicted at 2pm on 13 September.
Tenants have received a “notice of accommodation cessation” informing them that “due to recent developments, [the provider] will be ceasing your accommodation in the coming days”.
“We kindly request that you begin making preparations to vacate the premises, including packing your belongings and organising your next steps.”
A separate text message advised tenants to contact the PNG immigration and citizenship authority “to arrange alternative accommodation”. “We understand that this may be a challenging time, and we appreciate your cooperation as we work to facilitate a smooth transition,” the message read.
Nurul Chawdury fled Bangladesh and arrived in Australia by boat in 2013. His claim for refugee protection was accepted, but he has spent more than a decade exiled in PNG and is waiting for potential resettlement to New Zealand.
He has children he cannot afford to educate. Refugees and asylum seekers are supported by charities, but some weeks, finding enough food is difficult. Healthcare support has been withdrawn, and he cannot afford medicine or pay doctors’ bills, so he, his wife and his children go without healthcare.
Chawdury received an eviction notice this week telling him if he could not pay thousands of kina – money he simply does not have – he would be evicted.
“Our situation is dire, we are miserable,” he told the Guardian.
“If we are evicted from this place, there is no place other than the street to live with my family. This is a very dangerous place and we have nowhere else to go. I am feeling really very hopeless.”
The Australian-funded support services for refugees held in PNG have been steadily straitened over months. Healthcare was withdrawn, Chawdury said, then financial support. He was forced to take his eldest daughter out of school because he could not afford to send her.
The refugee program has been beset by internal allegations of rampant corruption and graft, denied by PNG authorities. Chawdury said refugees had watched the money – intended to support refugees forcibly held offshore – disappear.
“I think that the money the Australian government has allocated to keep us safe, has been scammed, and no one has paid the rent, and now we are going to be evicted.”
ASRC’s detention casework policy lead, Heidi Abdel-Raouf, wrote to Home Affairs on Monday warning that the families had “contacted us distressed and anxious” about the lockout notice.
“I ask you to take immediate action to ensure that the refugees and their families, including families with small children, do not become homeless and transient again.”
The ASRC said that “no further information has been provided around the funding deal” since July, while the cohort “remain destitute and unwell, with the health and humanitarian crisis continuing for more than 10 months now”.
“The situation is beyond critical. Every day without support increases the risk of harm to people.
“Further homelessness increases the risk to life and safety. Refugees and their families continue to experience discrimination, violent attacks, thefts and home invasion.”
The Greens’ immigration spokesperson, David Shoebridge, said the government had “abandoned” people seeking asylum in PNG.
“Now people, almost all of whom have been found to be refugees, are being made homeless and still the Albanese government does nothing,” he said.
“The answer is not hard. The Albanese government must evacuate all those in PNG for urgent medical care and then provide a pathway to permanency for all refugees.”
A Home Affairs spokesperson said: “The Australian government does not have any role in the ongoing management of, or service delivery arrangements for, individuals remaining in [PNG].
“This is a matter for the PNG government. More broadly, the Australian government is assisting the PNG government develop and sustain its humanitarian program and broader migration capability.
• This article was amended on 12 September 2024. A previous version said “about 70” people who had sought asylum in Australia remained in PNG.
