THE UNITED Nations has demanded that Australia take responsibility for the refugees that it had locked up in Papua New Guinea, who are now stuck there without essential services following the closure of the immigration prison.

Rico Salcedo, a regional protection officer at refugee agency UNHCR, said that he had just returned from Australia’s so-called regional processing centre on Manus Island and “what stood out the most … was a pervasive and worsening sense of despair among refugees and asylum-seekers.”

There was “a sense of desolation” with many “staying in the rooms, not going out, and not meeting and talking with others around them.