The lawyer representing about 900 men detained on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island says he will apply for a court injunction to stop any of the detainees from being deported.
The Manus Island detention centre. Photo: Behrouz Boochani
The PNG government is planning to deport 60 men from Manus to their countries of origin as they have not been granted refugee status.
Lawyer Ben Lomai said he had two options to stop the deportations, the first being to seek a judicial review.
"The other option would be to go back using the current proceedings we have in the Supreme Court application 17 of 2016 to make that application on the basis that they have already filed a case contesting the issue of their return back to Australia. So on that basis alone we can ask for the court to injunct the deportations."
Mr Lomai said he hoped to file the application to stop the deportations this week.