Pacific Solution
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Pacific Solution was the name given to the Australian government policy of diverting asylum seekers to detention camps on small island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. There were a number of pieces of legislation supporting this policy, including the controversial excising of thousands of islands from Australia’s migration zone or Australian territory. The policy was developed in response to the 2001 Tampa affair and is thought to be the brainchild of then Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock.
Asylum seekers were intercepted at sea while sailing from Indonesia and moved using Australian naval vessels. Detention camps were set up on Christmas Island, Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, and on the tiny island nation of Nauru. Some were also accepted for processing by New Zealand. Most of the asylum seekers came from Afghanistan (largely of the Hazara ethnic group), Iraq (fleeing Saddam Hussein), Iran, China, and Vietnam.
All costs associated with running the centres and processing the asylum applications were met by Australia.
The policy received criticism from a number of areas, with Amnesty International, refugee rights groups and other NGO’s claiming that Australia was failing to meet its international obligations. The ad-hoc nature in which the policy evolved was also criticised, as it resulted in people being moved to Manus Island and Nauru before facilities were ready.
As of May 29, 2005, 1,229 asylum seekers had been processed on Nauru, and 54 remained. Most of those detained were eventually found to be legitimate refugees, sometimes after more than three years in detention.
Several other countries are now considering setting up similar migration schemes, in particular a proposal from the EU to set up off-shore "asylum seeker processing centres" in North Africa. [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3707770.stm)
External links
- Oxfam Community Aid Abroad - Adrift In The Pacific (http://www.oxfam.org.au/campaigns/refugees/pacificsolution/)
- Refugee Council of Australia – Statistics (http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/html/facts_and_stats/stats.html)
- Nauru Wire (http://www.nauruwire.org)pt:Solução Pacífica
