Los Negros Island
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2°2′55″S 147°25′7″E / 2.04861°S 147.41861°E
Los Negros Island is the third largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is significant because it contains the main airport of Manus Province on its eastern coastline, at Momote. It is connected to Lorengau, the capital of the province, on Manus Island, via a highway and bridge across the Lonui Passage, which separates Los Negros from the larger Manus Island. It forms part of the Los Negros Rural LLG.[1]
The Manus Regional Processing Centre, an Australian immigration detention facility for illegal immigrants and people apprehended on boats while trying to reach Australia, was located on Los Negros Island. It was part, together with Nauru, of Australia's "Pacific Solution" policy, and it housed asylum seekers while their claims for refugee protection were processed. The centre was initially opened in 2001. It closed in 2008 but was reopened in 2012. The detention centre was eventually closed in November 2017 following a ruling by the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea that found detention there to be illegal.[2][3][4]
