Refugees

One of the attackers held a gun to the head of one of the refugees while the other two were armed with bush knives.

The stolen items included mobile phones, laptops and speakers.

Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said no one was injured in the attack at the Koki Apartments, but the refugees had been further traumatised.

The refugees came from the Australian offshore detention camps in Manus (Papua New Guinea) and Nauru, and were brought to the mainland for medical treatment.

They are being held at the Park Hotel in Carlton, where 22 of them now have Covid-19, with one hospitalised.

The Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul claimed the proper protocols of separating the infected from those without the virus had been ignored by Australian officials.

He said the Australian government has created a Covid incubator in the Park Hotel.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said resettlement arrangements with both countries were only open to refugees, and the family was not legally considered to be refugees.

The family has been detained on Christmas Island since 2019.

They were removed from their home in the regional Queensland town of Biloela in 2018 by Australian Border Force officials after their visas expired.

Almost all are single men and are Afghan, Pakistani or Rohingya.

In a statement, the Refugee Action Coalition says there is one Sri Lankan family (with four children) and one Bangladesh refugee.

“This will bring the total to 84 people who have flown from Nauru to the US since resettlement began last September,” says Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

“At least one more flight of refugees to the US is expected by the end of February.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised the money last the month after restating the offer to resettle 150 refugees from Australian offshore detention.

Deputy secretary Jeff Langley from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said there are a number of different ways the money could be channelled including to the Red Cross and other NGOs operating on the island.

He said the ministry is also talking to the Papua New Guinea government to identify needs created by the refugee population on the island.

Hundreds of men have refused to leave the Manus Island centre since it was shut down on 31 October, citing fears for their safety.

On Thursday, multiple men inside the centre said that PNG police had given them a one-hour deadline to leave.

Australia said it was a PNG operation.

Under a controversial policy, Australia has detained asylum seekers who arrive by boat in camps on Manus Island and Nauru, a small Pacific nation.

Without water, catering, power and medical services, about 600 men are occupying the decommissioned centre, where they have been interned by Australia since 2013.

The centre was closed on October 31 when companies providing services walked away from their contracts with the Australian government, following sustained public pressure.

The court found the services were available for the refugees at up to three alternative sites in the island's main town, but the refugees say they will not swap one prison for another.

Peter Dutton accused the detainees of being economic refugees, fleeing poverty rather than persecution, while still being able to pay up to $AU20,000 to people smugglers.

Mr Dutton said there was anecdotal evidence that detainees had amassed "the world's biggest collection of Armani jeans and handbags on Nauru," and he said their detention was being funded by "the generosity of the Australian taxpayer."

About 60 asylum seekers and guards came to blows in the running battle, as the governments of PNG and Australia met in Port Moresby to discuss refugee resettlement.

Coast guard Mohamed al-Alay told Reuters the refugees, carrying official UNHCR documents, were on their way from Yemen to Sudan when they were attacked by an Apache helicopter near the Bab al-Mandeb strait.

Mohammed Abdiker, emergencies director at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said 42 bodies had been recovered.

He said the attack at around 3:00am on Friday (local time) was "totally unacceptable" and that responsible combatants should have checked who was aboard the boat "before firing on it".