Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has declared he "won't be pressured" by the ongoing standoff on Manus Island after a seismic day in which police stormed the camp, destroyed property and appeared to make an arrest.
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About 50 men were escorted from the site on buses, to be relocated at accommodation in nearby Lorengau - but more than 300 refugees and asylum seekers remain at the decommissioned facility refusing to leave.
Police and immigration authorities entered the camp in the early hours of Thursday and ordered the men to "move out". They emptied rain tanks the men were using for drinking water, and were accused of destroying possessions.
Some refugees scaled the roofs of buildings, while others gathered in the compound and continued to resist being moved on. Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian-Kurdish refugee and journalist, was arrested and questioned by police.
A defiant Mr Turnbull said the standoff - now entering its 24th day - was "obviously designed" to pressure his government into allowing the refugees to come to Australia, and declared: "We will not be pressured."
Both the Prime Minister and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton used the events to warn activists in Australia against encouraging the men to put up a fight. It was "unacceptable that they continue to squat there", Mr Dutton said.
He also advised a "small number of people" were arrested during the operation, including Mr Boochani, who later tweeted that he had been handcuffed for two hours near the camp.
PNG police denied Mr Boochani was arrested or charged, saying he was "escorted" from the centre and taken to Lorengau. Fairfax Media could not confirm details of any other arrests.
Refugees accused police of violence and pushing men into the buses, but PNG police commissioner Garu Baki denied that and said the operation "was done peacefully and without use of force". The treatment of the refugees had been "nothing but the best so far", he said.
Earlier, police spokesman Dominic Kakas confirmed officers had destroyed water supplies because of the "danger of an outbreak of typhoid, dysentery or cholera".
Representatives of the Australian Council for International Development, which was conducting a fact-finding mission on Manus Island, told Fairfax Media they witnessed three buses carrying up to 50 men departing the former detention centre on Thursday afternoon.
Video sent by World Vision showed a man on board shouting "help, help" as the buses left the site.
"They looked pretty shattered," said Reverend Tim Costello, who travelled with ACFID. The organisation's chief executive Marc Purcell said two men with head injuries had also been taken to Lorengau Hospital.
The men remaining at the camp vowed to continue their resistance, with Sudanese refugee Abdul Aziz Muhamat tweeting: "It is not ... going to end well after what we are experiencing now."
The Australian government views the protest as political in nature and denies allegations the Manusian community is unsafe for the refugees or that the alternative accommodation is not yet ready. The closure of the regional processing centre was flagged six months in advance.
About 200 people were already living at the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre before Thursday's operation, and other facilities were available with food, water, electricity and medicine, Mr Dutton said on Thursday.
He said there was evidence some of the resisting men had homemade weapons that could be used against PNG police, while some had made "racist taunts" at authorities.
"People want to escalate the mood within the centre because there seems to be this view that if there can be a clash with the police, somehow that footage being played within Australia will change the Australian government's resolve," Mr Dutton told Sky News.
He said there was "overwhelming support" for the Turnbull government's approach to offshore processing. However, it is understood Mr Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's offices were inundated with phone calls from activists and concerned citizens on Thursday.
Labor's immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann called on the men to end the standoff and leave the site voluntary. Mr Shorten pleaded with the government to "please do the deal with New Zealand" allowing 150 men to resettle in that country.
with Fergus Hunter
