Nauru
The Nauru off-shore processing centre was set up by the Australian Government in September 2001. The people from the MV Tampa and several subsequent boats were taken there. Nauru is one of the "Pacific Solution" destinations, covered by a memorandum of understanding the Australian Government signed with the Republic of Nauru, in December 2001.
Below is the Tampa roll call in cold statistics:
| Tampa Refugees | 433 |
| Directly to NZ | 131 |
| Directly to Nauru | 302 |
| Taken from Nauru to NZ | 56 |
| Taken from Nauru to Sweden | 7 |
| Taken from Nauru to Norway | 2 |
| Taken from Nauru to Australia | 27 |
| Repatriated to countries of origin | 187 |
| Died on Nauru | 1 |
| Remaining on Nauru (June 2004) | 22 |
To join a mailling list for Nauru updates please contact Susan Metcalfe, [email protected]
- About the detention of asylum seekers
- The legal case against detention
- Background on Nauru
- News of Nauru
About the detention of asylum seekers on Nauru
'Pacific Solution' still poses human rights risks
"The recent transfer of seven Burmese asylum seekers demonstrates that the so-called 'Pacific Solution' is not dead, nor are the human rights risks attached to that policy," said Human Rights Commissioner Graeme Innes AM. "We still have a situation where people who arrive on excised Australian territory can be taken to Nauru and left there indefinitely. We still have a situation where certain asylum-seekers will be denied access to free legal assistance and judicial review of their asylum claims. And we still have a situation where there is no independent scrutiny of the conditions of the detention in Nauru," Mr Innes said. "Last year, the Commonwealth Government started making some welcome improvements to Australia's immigration detention system. The next step is to ensure that all asylum-seekers who arrive in Australia receive the benefit of those improvements."
The Pacific Solution - Amnesty International's concerns
Sen. Andrew Bartlett's Blog
The blog includes comment on Nauru and the Pacifc Solution.
National Council of Churches - The Pacific Solution
'This is not detention, this is hell'
This week, Mullaie and the others on Nauru were finally able to plead their case directly to the outside world after Nauru's Minister for Internal Affairs, David Adeang, allowed the Herald unfettered access to the asylum seeker camp and its population of broken souls.
Letters from Nauru - October 2004
At least 80 people, including 16 children (all Iraqi and Afghan) are entering their FOURTH year of incarceration “in the gloomy atmosphere on inferno in Nauru”
Two heartrending letters recently received from detainees via NauruWire.org
Two more letters can be read here...
Information Night with Senator Andrew Bartlett
On Monday 3 May 2004, ChilOut hosted an information evening with guest speakers Senator Andrew Bartlett and two of his advisers, Marianne Dickie and Karen Lee. Senator Bartlett and Marianne Dickie spoke of their two visits to Nauru, and Karen Lee shared her experiences of visting the Port Augusta housing project and Baxter detention centre.
Postcards from hell
The Government has seen to it that we know very little about life in Nauru's camps, where 266 asylum seekers still remain. Yet letters and reports have leaked out, revealing widespread mental illness, suicide attempts and despair, writes Robert Manne.
Nauru - Australia's Shame!
Over 260 people including more than 70 children, have been detained for well over 2 years on Nauru. These people may not fit the strict international definition of refugee but there is a strong and clear humanitarian case that they cannot return to their countries of origin. People should not be kept in detention indefinitely when it is clearly unsafe for them to return home.
Nauru: the cage where life gets lost
This is the story of a girl called Amina. For two years, she has lived in the Nauru detention camp with her brothers, aged nine and 16, and her sisters, aged seven and 11. [...] "So we left our country and we lost our dear grandmother and now we are in Nauru. You know I hate Nauru, due to here is a jail. I'm in a cage. I have been here near two years, this is not fair. I'm not worried about myself I'm worried about my family. My mother is always ill, sick, she's always in bed, my father, too. You know, my life has been lots of sorrow, always, always, and now we come to this way to be peace and safe but they tell us to go back, anyway, now I feel like a crazy."
Two years and still counting: the Nauru Detainees
Children report being scared during their journey to Nauru and terrified of returning to Afghanistan or Iraq. They talk about the fear of drowning or being attacked by sharks while on their way to Australia. They worry about their fathers who cannot sleep and are getting more and more anxious about the future. Many of these children have spent the majority of their lives either in refugee camps or in transit – some are spending their formative years in detention in Nauru.
The Cry of the Camp Children, Nauru
It is not what you expect from a nine year old: “If I go back to Afghanistan they will kill my father.” Little Shahraza has seen it all. He knows that is what happened to his uncles. He knows that his father was beaten.
Government-sponsored child abuse at the Nauru detention centres
So many children, young children, three, four, five years old, gathered at the gate. All of them kept in camps since 2001. The inescapable question arises again. How can this be that the Australian taxpayer funds the deliberate imprisonment of children? I think of my own daughter, 21 months old, in the crucial stages of development. How would it be for her growing up in this sort of place, perhaps separated from her father, without her or her parents having any idea what her future is? Our government likes to call itself family friendly, yet it keeps families with children locked up in these conditions.
Inside Nauru - Pacific Despair
For John Howard the so-called 'Pacific Solution' was a dream come true - asylum seekers could be detained and processed away from prying eyes. But now that solution is in deep crisis. In an event that has gone virtually unreported, asylum seekers in one of Nauru's two detention centres have now seized control, and driven out their Australian guards. Dateline's Bronwyn Adcock has managed to get inside one of those camp, where the conditions are grim. It's the first time a journalist has gained independent access to any of these camps.
Participating in a system that only makes people sicker
As a psychiatrist contracted to the Antonius Hospital in Sneek, Dormaar has years of experience in the reception of asylum seekers in the Netherlands. [...] "Dutch camps also have refugees with adjustment disorders, and these become greater the longer they are detained and remain in insecurity about their refugee status. But on Nauru, where refugees are treated like prisoners, the mental health problems are much greater and deteriorate much more quickly because people are locked up for longer. Twenty to thirty per cent of adult men have acute complaints, especially depression and anxiety.
Detention of asylum seekers in Pacific states
Australia's forcible transfer of asylum seekers to places of detention in other countries in the Pacific region penalizes them and acts as a deterrent in a variety of ways. It intentionally obscures state accountability for their protection, shifts responsibility for their detention and for decision-making on their claims outside any statutory framework, and, by removing due process guarantees, endangers their chances of gaining recognition as refugees. It deprives recognized refugees of automatic access to legal status and local integration and disregards the fundamental human rights principle of family unity. As on mainland Australia, arbitrary detention is itself a human rights violation deliberately used as a deterrent.
Still Drifting: Australia's Pacific Solution becomes "A Pacific Nightmare"
An Oxfam Community Aid Abroad Report
In June 2002, the President of Nauru Rene Harris described Australia's so-called "Pacific Solution" to the refugee issue as "a Pacific nightmare". [...] Statements about the "Pacific nightmare" reflect growing anger in the Pacific region that Australia is acting in its own interest, without concern for the dignity and development of neighbouring Pacific countries.
Adrift in the Pacific - The Implications of Australia's Pacific Refugee Solution
An Oxfam Community Aid Abroad Report
Oxfam Community Aid Abroad believes that the so-called "Pacific solution" is no solution to the issues raised by the Tampa crisis. It is important that Australia develop new policy on asylum seekers in the Pacific region, based on humane and sustainable alternatives.
MOU on Asylum Seekers Signed with Nauru
I have today signed with His Excellency President Rene Harris a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Republic of Nauru and the Commonwealth of Australia for Cooperation in the Administration of Asylum Seekers and Related Issues. This MOU consolidates our joint efforts to address the difficult issue of people smuggling and aims to ensure our cooperation continues to take place on an amicable, effective and mutually beneficial basis.
Protecting Australia's Borders
In the pre-election environment of 2001, the Australian Government introduced legislative changes allowing some of Australia's territory to be excised from the migration zone in order to discourage non-citizens from arriving unlawfully in Australia by boat. People attempting to do so since then have been intercepted at sea, where possible, and either returned to Indonesia or removed to third countries in the Pacific. Any claims made by those people for refugee status could then be processed by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) outside the jurisdiction of Australian courts, with no guarantee of a resettlement place in Australia. These border protection measures have become known as the 'Pacific Solution'. They represent a change in the way that Australia is prepared to meet its obligations under the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951. This Research Note provides an overview of these measures and recent developments.
The legal case against detention on Nauru
A group of lawyers, including Julian Burnside QC and Eric Vadarlis, have mounted a legal challenge to the detention of asylum seekers on Nauru. Both Burnside and Vadarlis were involved in legal action on behalf of the asylum seekers when they were picked up by the MV Tampa back in 2001.
They will argue that the detention of asylum seekers is unconstitutional in Nauru because the detainees never seek the visas they are issued, and also that detention without trial is unconstitutional in Nauru.
-
Legal submissions for the court case, seen by NEWS.com.au, state that a proper reading of Nauru's Immigration Act "do not authorise: (a) the imposition of a visa against a person's will; or (b) the imposition of a restraint condition in a visa".
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FUNDS NAURU ASYLUM ACTION
Lawyers acting for asylum seekers say it is disgraceful that the Federal Government is funding a challenge to its own laws which could prevent the High Court ruling on the fate of asylum seekers on Nauru.
Canberra funds Nauru legal attack
Nauru's challenge, heard by the High Court yesterday, was not defended by the Government - a situation described by Justice Michael Kirby as "remarkable, bordering on astonishing". [...]
Nauru is challenging a Commonwealth law that makes Australia's High Court the final arbiter for appeals from Nauru's legal system. The action aims to prevent the High Court hearing an appeal lodged by Melbourne lawyers against a decision by Nauru's Supreme Court that upheld the legality of detaining asylum seekers on the island.
Lawyers go to High Court over Nauru detention
A group of Melbourne lawyers is appealing to Australia's High Court over last month's judgement in Nauru's Supreme Court upholding the legality of its detention of asylum seekers. If leave to appeal is granted, the outcome of the case could determine the fate of 92 asylum seekers left on Nauru after 153 Afghans were last month recognised as refugees.
The notice of appeal is being lodged by solicitor Eric Vadarlis, one of the four lawyers who last month challenged the detention as illegal and punitive.
All-clear for Nauru detention
Nauru's Supreme Court has found the country's detention of asylum seekers is not illegal or punitive and may in fact be humanitarian. Chief Justice Barry Connell made the finding yesterday in dismissing a challenge to the legality of Nauru detaining asylum seekers. Chief Justice Connell found that asylum seekers' "acquiescence" in their detention meant it was not punitive, and "they could if they wished, leave Nauru". [...] Mr Vadarlis said an appeal would be lodged.
Nauru judge reserves verdict
A NAURU judge has reserved his decision in a hearing to test the legality of detaining asylum seekers in the island nation. [...] The hearing before the Nauru Supreme Court ended late on Thursday afternoon. Ms Bogdan said the decision in the case was not expected for at least a month.
Court threat to 'Pacific Solution'
A court in Nauru is hearing a case that could collapse the Australian Government's use of the island nation as a detention centre for asylum seekers. Lawyers are arguing the unusual visas Nauru uses to administer the scheme are incompatible with the country's constitution.
Nauru dismisses Australian lawyer
The Pacific state of Nauru has withdrawn approval for an Australian senior legal counsel [Peter Hanks QC] to represent it in a case on asylum seekers before the courts in Nauru.
Nauru orders all Australian lawyers home
Nauru judge complains
The Chief Justice of Nauru has lodged a complaint with his Government over the cancellation of visas for four Melbourne refugee lawyers.
Nauru bars boat people's lawyers
Uncle of Nauru justice minister to represent asylum seekers
The uncle [Reuben Kun] of Nauru's justice minister is the para-legal pleader appointed by the minister to represent asylum seekers challenging their detention on the tiny Pacific nation.The news comes a day after the justice minister, Russell Kun, barred an Australian legal team, headed by prominent Melbourne lawyer Julian Burnside, QC, from entering Nauru to represent the detainees in a hearing.
'Unqualified' lawyers to fight Nauru asylum case
Australia aiding and abetting corrupt act by Nauru
Senator Bartlett said the Australian Government is aiding and abetting corrupt behaviour by the Nauru Government by continuing to fund the detention centres, "Australian taxpayers have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to enable Nauru to imprison asylum seekers, an act that has quite likely been illegal from day one.
MEDIA RELEASE - Flotillas of Hope
An order to rescind the visas of Melbourne QC Julian Burnside and his legal team on the eve of their court appearance in Nauru was preposterous said a Flotillas of Hope spokesperson, Lynda Smith. [...] Flotillas of Hope will depart from the Australian east coast mid May for Nauru and will continue to draw world attention to the plight of these asylum seekers and also the economic situation of Nauru which has resulted after years of phosphate mining.
More on Flotillas of Hope at: www.flotilla2004.com
Aust Lawyers Challenge Nauru Detention
"The Nauruan constitution gives everybody the right to walk around freely and not be imprisoned except by law. " [Eric Vadarlis, one of the lawyers action for detainees].
An earlier court case in Nauru...
Asylum seeker legal issues cause problems between Aust, Nauru
Melbourne lawyer, Julian Burnside QC, was asked over a month ago by a number of the defendants to represent them. After notifying the head prosecutor of his intention to do just that, Mr Burnside QC says Nauruan officials have ignored his requests for basic information about the case, including when it was to be heard.
JULIAN BURNSIDE: I have written three times to the prosecutor, with copies to the Chief Justice of Nauru and the Minister for Justice for Nauru, each time asking to be provided with a copy of the summons and the date of the hearing and I have not had a response to any of those faxes and it's interesting to bear in mind that the Chief Justice of Nauru is located in Melbourne, so that the requests only have to get to the top end of Collins Street.
Background on Nauru
Lonely Planet's Guide to Nauru acquaints us with the basic facts and history of the Republic of Nauru, an island with a population of 11 000 people, just 21 square kilometres in size. The interior of the island has been environmentally devastated by phosphate mining, much of this occuring while the island was under Australian administration.
Human Rights Watch Nauru Country Report
Australian Government Republic of Nauru Country Brief - March 2004
US State Department Nauru Country Report on Human Rights Practices
ReliefWeb on Nauru ReliefWeb is a project of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
News of Nauru
Nauru News on Connecting the Pacific
Nauru News on Topix.net
Nauru News from InsideOceania
Nauru Online
Burmese asylum seekers sent to Nauru
The Immigration Department has revived using Nauru Island for its Pacific Solution policy by transferring seven Burmese refugees there. [...] He said the department was still waiting to hear back from ASIO on its re-assessment of its previous security assessment that led to two long-term detainees remaining on the island - one is now living in the community and the other currently in hospital in Australia. The department's spokesman said the cost of keeping the Nauru centre open was $33.7 million (2004-05 figure). From July to December last year when it was empty, the cost was $14.9 million.
Detainees put on secret flight to Nauru
Seven Burmese asylum seekers are today surrounded by a bleak landscape of coral pinnacles at Australia's detention centre on the remote Pacific Island nation of Nauru. Their flight yesterday from Christmas Island, kept secret for "security reasons", made them the vanguard of the "Pacific solution mark II" and the only inmates. [...] They were accompanied by 19 Australian personnel, including private security guards from the detention facility contractor Global Solutions Ltd.
Nauru calls on Australia to resolve detainee plight
Ever since the 'Tampa' crisis five years ago, the island of Nauru has been at the centre of Australia's so-called Pacific Solution for processing asylum seekers. More than 1,200 asylum seekers were detained there, most of them gradually being granted refugee status. But since late last year, the Nauru Detention Centre has held just two men. And one of those men, an Iraqi, was recently flown to Brisbane for urgent psychiatric treatment. The Nauru Government says that after more than four years, it's time for Australia to resolve the plight of these two detainees. But as Peter McCutcheon reports, while both men are considered refugees, they've been left in limbo due to adverse security assessments from ASIO.
ASIO's questioning of Nauru detainees under scrutiny
Last year ASIO assessed Mr Faisal as a security threat. The Nauruan Foreign Minister said Mr Faisal's condition worsened sharply after he was re-interviewed by ASIO officers. Psychiatry Professor Ian Hickie is a member of the Federal Government's detention health advisory group and he recently flew to Nauru to visit the two asylum seekers. He told Alexandra Kirk that ASIO's repeated interviewing of people with psychiatric illnesses might, in fact, exacerbate their medical problems.
Nauru officials visit Baxter detention centre
The small island country is now looking to make its processing camps for asylum seekers more comfortable for families, and it is using Baxter as an example. Nauru's Foreign Minister David Adeang will tour the Baxter Residential Housing Project in Port Augusta today and hold various meetings with Australian Government officials. Asylum Seeker Resource Centre spokeswoman Pamela Curr says Australia should be careful with the advice it gives. "There are many areas where Australia could offer leadership but the detention of human beings is not one of them," she said.
Mental health team to visit Nauru detainees
A group of mental health experts will be sent to the island to assess the two Iraqi men, who have been refused entry to Australia due to adverse security assessments. Senator Vanstone says the decision to review the men's health was prompted by a report by the International Organisation for Migration.
Australia's million-dollar-a-month Nauru detention centre for two refugees
Immigration officials say the Nauru camps are being maintained in a state of readiness, complete with dozens of staff, in case they are needed for future asylum-seekers. The "million dollar a month" figure is more than six times the official estimate given after the last big group of asylum seekers left the island late last year. The group of 25 asylum seekers were accepted by Australia after nearly five years detained on the island. The decision to release the group followed a September visit to Nauru by former immigration minister John Hodges with mental-health experts, who said that "the precarious mental health of many of the detainees required urgent attention." The delegates said some men were being constantly monitored for suicide risk or self-harm.
Last two inmates to be allowed out of Australian-run camp in Nauru
The last two inmates of the Australian-funded detention centres on Nauru may soon be able to live away from the camps. The two were left behind last month when the remaining other 25 asylum seekers were given temporary visas into Australia. [...]
Currently the duo are able to move around Nauru during the day and must return to the camp at night, but Mr Mahmoodi says this may change. "They will have more freedom, most probably they will be living outside in the community so they will have more flexibility...they may have more flexible visas to enable them to stay out in the community."
UN critical of refugee detention on Nauru
NEIL WRIGHT: In most cases it's not good for their mental health to be there, and particularly in the case of women and children who are particularly vulnerable. And there's one woman who I met once whilst I was there who has nobody else that she can speak with who is of Arab origin. So she's feeling very lonely and very depressed, and it's also not a place, I feel, where, although they receive basic education, children can be brought up for any length of time.
Accept Nauru detainees as migrants: UN
The Federal Government will be asked this week to find a humanitarian solution for 54 asylum seekers who are still in offshore detention on Nauru. The request will come from Neill Wright, the regional representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who visited the island last week and found the detainees to be in a desperate state.
Nauru child detainees running on empty
Ilham Rehmati, 14, is the only teenage girl in a detention camp that is overwhelmingly comprised of young men. On the tiny, near-bankrupt island of Nauru she goes everywhere with her parents. She says she is very depressed and lonely. "It's very hard for me. I cannot go outside [alone]; I cannot go to the dining room; I cannot go shopping or swimming. I [only] go with my family." When the family's most recent application for asylum was rejected last year, Ilham's younger brother, Abbas Ali, was ill for 10 days, vomiting and complaining of headaches. His cousin, Hassan Ali, 21, says: "When his father took him to the doctor, he said, 'Your son is very lonely. There is no treatment'."
'This is not detention, this is hell'
This week, Mullaie and the others on Nauru were finally able to plead their case directly to the outside world after Nauru's Minister for Internal Affairs, David Adeang, allowed the Herald unfettered access to the asylum seeker camp and its population of broken souls.
The forgotten
Susan Metcalfe believes the Nauru caseload should be reassessed on the basis of new evidence. The families and two young Iraqi men should be brought to Australia immediately, she says. “Life in a detention camp is a terrible way for anyone to live, but it is certainly not an environment for children to be growing up in. The remaining six children have no friends to spend time with. They are becoming more depressed and lonely each day.
Detention centre vital for Nauru
"It's not a lie to say that the standard of living being provided to residents in the centres is better than what most Nauruans are living today," Nauru Minister for Health Kieren Keke says. But for bankrupt Nauru the detention centre provides jobs and much needed cash. Keke says it provides cash flow on the island, economic activity, and job opportunities. So far Nauru has received tens of millions of dollars for operating the centre - and it can't afford to lose that income.
Nauru asylum seekers speak of growing rates of mental illness
The remaining asylum seekers on Nauru say their suffering increasing cases of mental illness because of their continued detention on the island. As Sean Dorney reports, the 80 asylum seekers left on Nauru mix regularly with the local community. "The asylum seekers are allowed to go to the small fishing harbour on Nauru to swim, to the island's internet cafe and their children attend school. At one school I spoke to Ilham Rehmati whose father Mohammad Ali Rehmati waits in the school grounds while she and her brothers attend classes. Mr. Rehmati says he has been interviewed three times but has been told each time he is not a refugee and should go back to Afghanistan. His daughter translated. "We have been treated very well but we didn't come for Nauru, we came for Australia to have a peaceful life. My mother is sick and we have been in here three years. It's too hard for us. Please for God's sake help us, help us from here." The gates to the asylum seeker's camp are open each day, but there is a lot of sea between Nauru and anywhere else. "
One of two asylum seekers camps on Nauru closes
One of the two asylum seeker processing camps on Nauru will be mothballed following the departure later today of 22 inmates who have been accepted as refugees by New Zealand.
The camps were set up on Nauru as part of Australia's Pacific Solution program. Sean Dorney reports that the camp known as Top-side will be closed and all 82 remaining asylum seekers will be housed in the remaining camp known as State House.
Last 21 Afghan refugees accepted
Refugee Muhammad Ali Amiri said in an email from Nauru yesterday that he was looking forward to being free of the Nauruan camp. The camp had been his home for three years, almost to the day. "On the 19th of this month, it will be three years that we are in Nauru," he wrote. "We are ready to go to New Zealand tomorrow . . . it is great we become free from Nauru." Immigration Minister Paul Swain said New Zealand agreed to take the 21 single male Afghans and one Bangladeshi man after a request from the United Nations high commissioner for refugees.
A country bled dry
Only 30 years ago, Nauru had the second-highest per capita income in the world, just behind Saudi Arabia. Today it can't pay its debts, it can't pay its workers, it can barely feed, water or clothe its people. The one-time wealth was entirely due to one natural resource; phosphate. [...] A little known fact is that the detainees have taught Nauruans that with some work and ingenuity, it is possible to grow food, despite water shortages and the very limited availability of arable land. The asylum seekers have miraculously grown oranges, pineapples and vegetables. Nauru developed the highest rate of diabetes in the world as a result of a lack of exercise - the phosphate mining work was done by visiting islander labourers - and a poor diet.
Spanning the globe, we give you Nauru
Weightlifters give a boost to desperately poor island-country of 12,000 inhabitants that's falling into chaos.
Door may open for islanders
Federal cabinet is to consider a radical proposal to allow the citizens of the tiny island of Nauru to work and live in Australia. The proposal, scheduled to be presented to cabinet this month, would provide vital employment opportunities and income generation for the island. It could eventually lead to many of the 12,000 population of the embattled nation resettling in Australia. Other options to be considered include a total restructure and downsizing of the Nauruan administration, injection of Australian expertise, stimulation of investment and continuing Australian aid. Allowing Nauruans preferred entry is arguably the most cost-effective and realistic option, but would mark a significant departure from Australia's non-discriminatory immigration policy.
Refugees gone in 2 years: Nauru leader
The Australian detention centres on Nauru could be cleared of boat people within two years, Nauru's new leader said yesterday.
Australian to head Nauruan treasury
An Australian Treasury official will fly to Nauru on Monday to become Nauru's Secretary for Finance. Peter Depta will take over as head of the Nauru Finance Department under an agreement reached between the Australian and Nauruan Governments.
More refugees arrive in Brisbane from Nauru
A group of 75 Afghan refugees has arrived in Brisbane from detention on the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru. It is the third group to be granted permission to enter Australia since the Government reviewed its caseload in Nauru.
New life begins with heater and donations
For Nabi Baqiri and his family, freedom is cold. After being detained on the stifling equatorial island of Nauru since late 2001, it was a novelty to need to warm up. They did this with a radiator in an empty room of their new home in Dandenong South.
ANXIOUS BUT HOPEFUL: NAURU AFGHANIS
Thirty-five Afghan refugees, who had been detained at the Australian immigration centre on Nauru, have arrived in Australia after their cases for asylum were reviewed.
Nauru detainees arrive in Australia
Thirty-five Afghani refugees, more than half of them children, flew into Brisbane tonight after years being detained on the Pacific Island of Nauru. The refugees - 11 men, five women and 19 children - will be resettled in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Tasmania - after being granted visas. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the arrival of the first group of refugees followed the government's commitment late last year to reassess the Afghani caseload on Nauru.
Nauru hunger strike ends
Nauru government spokeswoman Helen Bogdan said the seven ended the hunger strike at the weekend, but maintained their protest against their detention.
Nauru to reconsider detention role
Nauru will reconsider its agreement to host a detention centre for Australia following the overthrow of President Rene Harris in a no-confidence vote yesterday.
Downer confident Nauru detention centre will stay
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says he is confident Nauru will not close its immigration detention centre despite a change of government on the tiny Pacific island.
"It'll be interesting what they do. Nauru will come to a grinding halt if they close the detention centre because for a start, they're paying for fuel and power, oil.
"Nauru can't afford it at the moment." [Former President, Rene Harris]
Seven Iraqis now on hunger strike
Nauru hunger strikers taken to hospital
Nauru detainees 'should be freed'
The call was made by more than 200 people who gathered on the banks of the Brisbane River to farewell two yachts bearing eight Australians, sailing for Nauru on a voyage of support for the 260 asylum seekers still on the island. [...] Australian Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett said all remaining detainees on the island, including about 50 Iraqis, should also be freed.
Three asylum seekers in Nauru hunger strike
The minister's office says all 56 Iraqis detained on Nauru have been assessed by the Immigration Department and are not regarded as "refugees". The three are apparently demanding to be released from detention.
Most Nauru refugees to be resettled
Senator Vanstone today told Channel Seven that, to date, 131 Afghani asylum seekers on Nauru had been granted refugee status - just over 50 children, 60 men and the remainder women. "Most of those will be resettled in Australia," she said. "That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone; we've always said where people are judged to be refugees, we're a very welcoming country."
Tampa final chapter as 12 get approval
The review by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees follows its recognition of 10 Afghans as refugees in February and means that only 22 who arrived on the Tampa remain on Nauru. They will stay there while the UNHCR negotiates with countries to resettle them. Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett welcomed the news but said that if any of the 22 came to Australia, the saga would continue because they would be given temporary visas.
Labor calls for scrapping of 'Pacific solution'
Government should close Nauru camp immediately
"Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has finally acknowledged the legitimacy of the claims of the Afghan asylum seekers but not before putting them through the hell of detention on a Pacific island out of scrutiny of the Australian people and media," Senator Brown said.
92 Afghans on Nauru win refugee fight
BON VOYAGE to all those of FLOTILLA OF HOPE
Activists leave for Nauru
Human rights activists sail from Sydney for Nauru with presents for children in the immigration detention centre on the island and messages of peace for their families.
Refugee campaigner calls PM a zombie
About face: Afghans on Nauru to be let in
Despite tough rhetoric at the last election that none of the "illegals" would set foot in Australia, it appears most will now be allowed in, Government sources said yesterday.
Refugee status accepted
The Federal Government will soon announce that a "significant proportion" of detainees on Nauru have been accepted as refugees.