30 May 2017

FSM lawyer presses ahead to free refugees

1:14 pm on 30 May 2017

A lawyer in the Federated States of Micronesia says she'll go ahead with legal action to try and set free four Nepali refugees detained in Pohnpei.

Nepalese refugees in Micronesia

Photo: Supplied/ Denise Oen

The men have not been allowed off the main wharf on the island since they arrived nearly a year ago and are living on a rickety fishing boat.

Before that they were held in a similar situation on neighbouring Yap awaiting determination of their refugee status.

Nepalese refugees in Micronesia

Photo: Supplied/ Denise Oen

Marstella Jack, a former FSM attorney general, said a meeting with the Justice Department about the men had been postponed.

"Because these refugees have been in detention for an unreasonable amount of time, since they've arrived in the country, which is almost a little over two years, I'm just going to go ahead and ask the court for their removal from detention through a writ of habeus corpus," she said.

Marstella Jack said churches are among those who have offered to look after the man as they wait to be resettled.

Nepalese refugees in Micronesia

Photo: Supplied/ Denise Oen