MANUS Island detainees are expected to launch legal action over the closure of Australia’s immigration detention centre.

Hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers are refusing to leave the camp at the Lombrum Navy Base in Papua New Guinea as food, water and power are cut off on Tuesday.

Detainees fear they won’t be safe at three other facilities they are meant to relocate to in and around the island’s main town of Lorengau.

The group believes their constitutionally protected human rights are being breached by the removal of basic services, including water and electricity.

Overnight, detainees secured damaged perimeter fencing around the compound as they prepared to barricade themselves inside.

As they did, PNG immigration officials plastered notices up around the centre urging detainees to leave before utilities were cut off and the site was returned to PNG defence forces.

“Move to alternative accommodation now,” the notice read.

“Anyone choosing to remain here will be liable for removal from an active PNG military base.” Papua New Guinea’s government on Monday warned Australia it will take no responsibility for “non-refugees” and people who refuse to settle in PNG, saying they are the obligation of the Australian government.

PNG lawyer Ben Lomai is expected to lodge a legal application on Tuesday morning, The Guardian reports.

An Australian lawyer assisting with the case, Greg Barns, says the application “seeks to ensure that those asylum seekers who remain on the island don’t have those constitutional rights breached”.

Extra PNG police have been deployed to the island after many locals threatened to use violence to stop the asylum seekers relocating.

Two of the three centres earmarked for the detainees are still not fenced or guarded.

PNG is also demanding Australia clarify its plans for people found not to be refugees and refugees who are refusing to settle on Manus Island. PNG Immigration Minister Petrus Thomas says Australia alone is responsible for finding third-country resettlement options for refugees and returning non- refugees to their home countries.

Acting Prime Minister Julie Bishop insists Australia is working to find solutions.

The Lombrum centre was forced to close after the PNG Supreme Court ruled in April 2016 that Australia’s detention of refugees and asylum seekers there was illegal and unconstitutional.