Refugee curfew on Manus Island not legal - lawyer

The night-time curfew imposed on Manus Island refugees is a breach of their constitutional rights, their lawyer says.

The 6pm to 6am curfew was enforced last month following the death of a local woman in a car crash.

Manus police chief David Yapu said the car was being driven by a refugee who had been drinking and the curfew was to protect them from angry locals.

"At least, there must be some control. And if we do not control, we can be expecting more problems from them and the community would be frustrated," he said.

About 580 refugees remain exiled to the Papua New Guinea Island by Australia where they have allegedly been assaulted dozens of times by locals.

The lawyer Ben Lomai said the curfew had no legal basis.

"You can't just simply impose a restrictions on the movements of the people because the constitutional requirement is that there has to be a valid, legal reason for an internment or a curfew," Dr Lomai said.

"A simple reason like 'We have to stop these guys moving around because they're causing so much nuisance' is not a good, valid reason," he said.

"We say this in a context where we have policemen there we have law and order people, and the rights of the asylum seekers will not be different from the rights of the local people."

In 2016, the PNG Supreme Court ordered the refugee detention centre on Manus Island be closed after it found their detention was unconstitutional.

Buses were provided to take them into Lorengau town during the day but many men - traumatised, institutionalised and afraid of violence from locals - were unable to leave the facility where they had been held since 2013.

Last year, the refugees were forcibly moved to three other facilities in Lorengau where they maintain their detention has continued by virtue of being confined to a tiny island and now by the curfew.

The journalist and Manus Island refugee Behrouz Boochani said refugees refused to leave the detention centre in November because they knew "an extreme level of tension would arise" between Lorengau locals and the refugees.

"It was pretty obvious that if they throw 700 men in a tiny village with a small population, it would definitely cause many social conflicts and problems," Mr Boochani said.

"During that time Charlie Benjamin, the governor of Manus, was supporting the relocation. He even stated in interviews that it's what the Australian government wants and he'll execute that order," he said.

"I think now he should take some responsibility for the current issues and ask the Australian government to resolve the problem instead of putting more pressure and restriction on the refugees."

Refugees reported Mr Benjamin stormed into one of their facilities last month and threatened them with consequences if they broke curfew.

But instead of punishing all the refugees for the actions of few, any trouble makers should be dealt with by police, Dr Lomai said.

"There's law and order in place. Whoever is drunk and behaving disorderly or even driving under the influence of liquor they have laws there they can impose," he said.

"Community policing is the way to go. Get them together and make them understand there are laws they need to comply with. Everyone should not be coping the blame for one of two people."

The curfew would also be deleterious to the refugees' mental health, the lawyer said.

"They more they are detained the more traumatised they are. It adds to more stress on them and anxiety," he said.

Last week, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) published findings from a June mission to Manus in which it warned that the mental health of the refugees continued to deteriorate due mainly to uncertainty about their future.

Citing a refugee suicide in May, UNHCR said solutions needed to be found for men unlikely to be resettled in the US or "serious, adverse outcomes" were likely.