Asylum seekers have been released from the Manus Island detention centre but the Turnbull government has denied responsibility for their welfare, despite claims they are lucky not to have been "chopped up" by locals wielding machetes.
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Papua New Guinea chief migration officer Mataio Rabura told Fairfax Media that detainees were now free to leave the Manus Island centre after that nation's Supreme Court ordered the facility was illegal and unconstitutional, and the detention must end.
He said about 850 male asylum seekers and refugees at the detention centre had been encouraged to relocate to a nearby transit facility "where they can go and come", adding that detainees were being bused in and out of the detention centre each day.
Manus Island MP Ron Knight said most detainees were too "wary" to move to the transit centre and expressed concern about their release.
"You have young guys locked up for so long, they get involved in consuming home brew, womanising and involved in marijuana offences," he said, adding island police were "weak".
He said there were cultural differences between locals and detainees, describing the latter as "pretty aggressive people".
Mr Knight was unable to say if those involved in recent incidents were newly released detainees or those who already lived at the transit centre, because "they all look the same".
"It's been happening for some time. [They are] assaulting and chasing women, young [local] boys have been chasing them back with bush knives, machetes, iron bars," Mr Knight said.
"If you chase my sister … into my yard the first thing I'm going to pick up is a machete and chase you back."
Mr Knight claimed the detainees had been spared from being "chopped up" because Manus Island was a "peaceful" place compared with elsewhere in PNG.
"If it was the highlands there would have been many deaths already," he said.
Mr Knight's comments highlight the potential cultural and social problems arising from the release of detainees into the Manus community without appropriate community education and settlement programs.
Human Rights Law Centre director of legal advocacy Daniel Webb, who has visited Manus Island, said the relationships between detainees and islanders were often positive.
"I saw lots of instances of generosity and kindness between the men and Manus locals but there are also some real tensions. That's inevitable when you lock up 900 innocent men on a far flung corner of a remote island for three years," he said.
"Just flinging the gates open isn't a solution. These men have spent the last three years of their lives on a painful road to nowhere. The only viable and humane option is to bring them [to Australia]."
Fairfax Media on Thursday asked Immigration Minister Peter Dutton what measures were being taken to ensure the safety of detainees in the Manus community, and whether garrison services at the Australian taxpayer-funded detention centre had been scaled back.
He said Manus Island was "an issue for the PNG Government to comment on" and Australian officials were in discussion with PNG over the centre's future.
"PNG's a sovereign nation. They have responsibility for their regional processing centre," he said.
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has previously stated that the detainees are the responsibility of the Australian government.
Mr Dutton said his government was still funding detainee support services such as meals and health care.
