The Australian government on Friday announced it is planning to revive its controversial "Pacific Solution" to deal with its refugees problem. This early, Papua New Guinea has started to make plans to accommodate the huge number of boat people.

Australian law requires refugees to be detained in immigration centres while their application for visas are processed. This procedure results to overcrowding of the centres which sometimes leads to violent unrest and in some instances, suicides.

Immigration Department Secretary Andrew Metcalfe met with officials of Papua New Guinea to finalize and agreement. The department has not released details of the agreement.

However some sources have claimed that Papua New Guinea and Australia are closed to finalizing a deal to revive the so-called "Pacific Solution" which will send refugees to remote islands for processing.

Papua's Foreign Ministry Secretary Michael Maue said, "At the moment, the matter is still under consideration, at least from our side. It is a matter that is with our political leaders now."

The Island of Manus in PNG has been used by the previous government of John Howard from 2001 to 2004 to hold asylum seekers and boat people seeking to live in Australia. The island can accommodate fresh inflows of boat people and help ease the problem of overcrowding in existing immigration centres.

Under the "Pacific Solution", boatpeople were processed on Manus Island or the tiny island nation of Nauru in Australian-funded detention centres but many languished on these remote outposts for years.