Whereas offshore detention coverage is being wound down, campaigners say ‘darkish chapter’ won’t finish till final refugees go away PNG.
The final refugee held on the Pacific island of Nauru beneath Australia’s infamous offshore detention coverage has been evacuated to Australia, in keeping with refugee advocacy teams.
The person arrived in Australia on Saturday evening, after the federal government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, which was elected in 2022, mentioned it could finish a coverage in place for greater than 10 years.
“Over the previous decade, our authorities stood by and witnessed abuse, assault, neglect, hurt and struggling in offshore detention,” Jana Favero, director of advocacy on the Asylum Seeker Useful resource Centre, mentioned in a press release on Sunday. “Males, girls and kids sought security and safety, but we banished them merely for the sake of politics. We’re grateful that the Albanese authorities has taken motion and evacuated the final remaining refugees from Nauru. One chapter of distress is over.”
Australia resumed sending refugees to Nauru in 2013 beneath a beforehand deserted offshore detention coverage that was mentioned to be essential to cease individuals travelling to Australia in small boats. Such arrivals, who have been additionally detained in Papua New Guinea (PNG), have been advised they might by no means have the fitting to settle in Australia even when they have been discovered to have a legitimate declare for cover.
Refugee teams say some 3,127 individuals have been despatched to Nauru and PNG with many struggling psychological and bodily well being issues on account of their extended detention and separation from household. The coverage was broadly condemned by refugee advocates, rights teams and the United Nations.
Some households forcibly separated beneath the scheme have taken their instances to the UN.
A brief-lived medical evacuation programme introduced some to Australia whereas others have discovered everlasting properties in different international locations, together with New Zealand and the USA. The rest have been despatched again to the international locations that they had fled.
Some 80 individuals stay in PNG, and marketing campaign teams say the federal government additionally wants to handle their state of affairs.
“Having spent billions to carry individuals in PNG, the Australian Authorities can not simply abandon them there. Many want important medical help – all want the choice to come back to Australia whereas resettlement choices are discovered,” Marie Hapke, convener of the Australian Refugee Motion Community, mentioned within the assertion.
Offshore processing first started greater than 20 years in the past after an Indonesian fishing boat carrying greater than 400 refugees and asylum seekers bumped into hassle en path to Christmas Island, an Australian territory south of Java, and the crew of a Norwegian container ship – the Tampa – went to their rescue.
A standoff adopted after the crew of the Tampa requested to dock on Christmas Island and Australia’s authorities advised them to return to Indonesia.
Then Prime Minister John Howard, a conservative, got here up with the ‘Pacific Answer’ to stop the group from reaching Australia and brokered a take care of Nauru to take these rescued by the Tampa.
The coverage was dropped in 2007 after elections introduced a Labor authorities to energy however was then reinstated in 2013 by a special Labor authorities as boat arrivals started to extend and elections loomed.
Whereas Albanese has once more signalled a break with the coverage, his authorities has additionally mentioned it’ll proceed to keep up the offshore detention amenities in Nauru as a “contingency” at the price of tens of millions of Australian {dollars} every year.
“The historical past of offshore detention and human rights abuses on Nauru will eternally stain the document of each side of Australian politics,” mentioned Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Motion Coalition. “Although they dedicated no crime, refugees despatched to Nauru misplaced 10 years of their lives. So long as Nauru stays ‘open’ and refugees stay in limbo in PNG, the darkish chapter of offshore detention won’t be lastly closed.”