PNG police back to move refugees from Australian camp

Papua New Guinean police returned to a shuttered Australian-run detention complex, marking the second day of a major operation to clear out more than 300 asylum-seekers refusing to leave.

The Manus Island centre has been sealed off to prevent supplies reaching the camp after a three-week standoff, with buses now carting asylum seekers to transit centres elsewhere on the island.

The United Nations has urged the Australian and PNG governments to engage in constructive dialogue and to reduce the tension.

The asylum seekers have raised concerns over the conditions in the transit centres, and they say they risk being resettled in PNG or another developing nation should they move.

Australia shut down the Manus Island centre after a PNG court ruled it was unconstitutional..

On Thursday about 50 asylum-seekers left the centre, after police entered the camp and according to the men confiscated food, water and personal belongings.

Mostly from Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Syria, the men are at the camp under Australia's strict "sovereign borders" immigration policy, under which it refuses to allow asylum seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores.

Australia's foreign minister Julie Bishop said the police action wouldn't damage Australia's standing in the region.

"In fact nations respect our stand against people smuggling," Bishop told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.