REFUGEES living in Australia’s asylum prison on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island applied yesterday for a court order to keep the jail open.

Papua New Guinea authorities had said they would cut off water, electricity and food to the detention centre inside the Lombrun navy base by 5pm local time yesterday. And anyone still there today would be considered trespassing on a military base.

The closing date was set after Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court ruled last year that Australia’s detention of asylum-seekers there was illegal and unconstitutional.