Manus Island detention centre losing power

Power has been cut to some compounds in the refugee detention centre on Manus Island after a visit from an Australian senator.

The detention centre officially closed at 8pm NZT on Tuesday and two hours later it was reported power, and with it running water, were being lost.

The power already cut in Oscar compound. The refugees are moving to Foxtrot right now. Its so dark and scary.

— Behrouz Boochani (@BehrouzBoochani) October 31, 2017

Earlier today, Australian senator Nick McKim entered the detention centre after staff deserted the facility.

At the same time, locals staged two different protests supporting and intimidating the refugees.

The Green senator from Tasmania has been one of the refugees' most vocal supporters in Australian politics and is making his third self-funded visit to the Papua New Guinea island.

Previously, he was prevented from gaining access to the centre, which about 600 refugees are refusing to leave.

Opened in 2012, the prison has become a safe haven for the men, who fear further attacks by locals in nearby Lorengau.

Staff vacated the facility at dawn this morning, their absence reportedly allowing locals to loot the centre of items like tents, fans and furniture.

The refugees fastened the gates but opened them this afternoon to receive the senator and a news crew from the ABC.

The Kurdish journalist and refugee Behrouz Boochani said Mr McKim was given a tour of the centre and remarked that the conditions made him ashamed of Australia.

Mr Boochani said some refugees shared their stories with the news crew and cried in front of the camera.

The senator joined the refugees in their daily protest before returning to Lorengau, where an angry group of locals reportedly demonstrated outside a building in East Lorengau where refugees have been told to move.

The local people are protesting in front of East Lorengau camp. They are saying don't come out. Locals are very angry. Where can we go?

— Behrouz Boochani (@BehrouzBoochani) October 31, 2017

Senator McKim could not be reached for comment, but yesterday he told RNZ extra bunks had been moved into the East Lorengau building.

"There's the East Lorengau Transit centre, which the Australian government has recently jammed a large number of extra beds into. So they're proposing that people quadruple bunk in tiny little cells and that place is effectively a prison. The other two facilities are not yet complete," he said.

"So the Australian government has just got to calm down, immediately abandon plans to cut off life supports into the centre because there is simply no safe option for these guys at the moment.

"And that's why they, as a matter of urgency, need to be evacuated out of Papua New Guinea and delivered to the US, or to New Zealand, or to Australia."

Meanwhile, about 200 Manusians marched to the provincial government building today to show their support for the refugees.

The deputy chair of the the Manus Alliance Against Human Rights Abuse, Ben Wamoi, said a petition with a set of requests was presented to the governor.

"We demand that Australia completes its obligations under international human rights law and human rights conventions, to take the asylum seekers back to Australia where they originally wanted to go, and to process them there for final settlement to a third country of their choice."

Back in the detention centre, Mr Boochani said refugees were rationing what little food and drinking water they had left.

Determined not to leave the centre, but terrified of being evicted by PNG defence forces and paramilitary police, the refugees, led by Abdul Aziz Adam, showed the peaceful resistance they intend to make.

Mr Boochani said lawyers pursuing action in the PNG Supreme court to injunct the centre's closure had their hearing postponed until tomorrow.