February 2021. In October 2021, the Australian Government cut off all support to the 124 remaining men on the island, leaving PNG to take over responsibility for them. Background The Manus Regional Processing Centre, officially Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (MIRCP), was one of a number of offshore Australian immigration detention facilities created after the Australian Government instituted its Operation Sovereign Borders policy, aimed at stopping maritime arrivals of asylum seekers to Australia. The operation is the outcome of a 2013 federal election policy of the Coalition, which commenced on 18 September 2013 after the election of the Abbott Government. The centre was located on the PNG Navy Base Lombrum (previously a Royal Australian Navy base called HMAS Tarangau) on Los Negros Island in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. Service contractors From November 2012 the British services company G4S was responsible for its operation. From March 2014, security was managed by Wilson Security, while food and maintenance at the centre were operated by Transfield Services, later renamed Broadspectrum, until Ferrovial bought out that company and its contract in April 2016. Broadspectrum later subcontracted Wilson to perform operations at Manus and Nauru. In September 2016 Wilson announced that it would be withdrawing at the end of its contract in October 2017, citing damage to its reputation, and Ferrovial, major owner of Broadspecturm, also announced that it would cease providing services to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection at the same date. After the centre had officially ceased operating as a detention centre at the end of 2017, Paladin Holdings and NKW Holdings were given contracts to maintain the camp, which were terminated on 30 November 2019. Timeline 1960s: West Papuan refugees on Manus Island University of Sydney immigration law specialist Professor Mary Crock says that Australia's history of offshore processing goes back to the 1960s, when Manus Island was set up to take refugees from West Papua. Known as "Salasia Camp", it consisted of a few corrugated iron houses on a bare concrete slab, not far from a beach near the main town Lorengau. Indonesia was preparing a military takeover of the former Dutch New Guinea colony in the 1960s, causing thousands of refugees, known as "West Irians" to flee into the then Australian colony of Papua New Guinea. Many were turned back by Australian patrol officers on the border but a few dozen received special visas and the first