Manus

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last year announced two deals between the US and Australia, with the latter resettling refugees from Costa Rica while the US took in refugees from Manus Island and Nauru.

Behrouz Boochani is detained on Canberra's offshore detention centre in Papua New Guinea, where he has been found to be a refugee.

But under Australian law, since he tried to reach Australia by boat as an asylum seeker he will never be resettled there.

In their letter to the Australian immigraiton minister Peter Dutton, the group says Mr Boochani has worked greatly to preserve Kurdish culture and language, including during his detention.

It says Mr Boochani faces imminent danger should he be returned to Iran, and his claim should be immediately heard in Australia.

UNHCR's regional representative Thomas Albrecht said Australia should offer protection and respect to people arriving by boat.

He said the basic human right of every person to seek asylum from persecution is not diminished by their mode of arrival.

Mr Albrecht said those forced to flee persecution need and deserve conducive conditions of protection, and a sustainable long-term solution.

Meanwhile, the Australia-based Human Rights Law Centre says Canberra's proposed ban could affect 320 refugees already living there.

Wilson Security's decision follows the announcement by the service provider, Broadspectrum, earlier this year that

As protests at the other Australian-run detention centre on Nauru enter day 56, those in the Manus Island centre have holding signs and chanting "Freedom, Freedom" and "This place is illegal".

The centre in PNG was ruled unconstitutional by the country's Supreme Court, prompting the Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, to vow to close it.

However the Australian authorities said this might take some time and repeated that the refugees and asylum seekers would never go to Australia.

Transfield said on Monday that it had been notified by the department that it was the preferred tenderer to provide welfare and security services on the islands after its existing contract expires on October 31.

“Subject to completion of a contract, the company will be responsible for providing these services for a further five years,” Transfield said.

The renewal of the contract will heighten focus on Transfield's management of the detention centres after several pension funds sold out of the stock following allegations of alleged human rights abuses.

This is to assure industry superannuation funds that it is not committing human rights abuses.

Transfield expects the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to renew a AUD$2.2 billion (US$1.5 billion) contract providing operational, maintenance and welfare support ­services for detention centres on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and Nauru within the next few weeks before its current contract expires on October 31.

The case is being brought by the Human Rights Law Centre on behalf of 150 asylum seekers who were temporarily moved to Australia from Nauru for medical treatment.

When it was originally raised in May, the case argued that there was no Australian law which gave the government the power to facilitate offshore arrangements.

But the government, with the support of the opposition Labor party, hastily brought in such a law.

Sources in Papua New Guinea have told the ABC the two main companies being considered are Transfield and Serco.

However, both reported frontrunners have been embroiled in scandals in recent weeks, with allegations of sexual assault on Manus Island and brutal 'fight club' videos filmed within a New Zealand prison.

The ABC understands Australia wants to hand over total control of the Manus Island detention centre to PNG authorities in the five-year period but is willing to extend the contract for an extra four years if that does not happen.