Australia to spend up to $195 million housing refugees after PNG detention centre closes

FILE PHOTO - Security fences surround buildings inside the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea, February 11, 2017. Behrouz Boochani/Handout via REUTERS

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia will spend up to A$250 million (£148 million) housing nearly 800 refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea for the next 12 months after its controversial detention centre closes this month.

But hundreds of detainees are refusing the leave the Australian-run and funded Manus Island detention centre, which will close on Oct. 31, fearing for their safety in the general community on Manus Island off Papua New Guinea's north coast.