Australia will continue funding its controversial offshore detention processing center in Nauru even as the facility’s remaining refugees leave, in an effort to dissuade people-smugglers from sending boats to the country, according to local media.
(Bloomberg) — Australia will continue funding its controversial offshore detention processing center in Nauru even as the facility’s remaining refugees leave, in an effort to dissuade people-smugglers from sending boats to the country, according to local media.
The government will spend up to A$350 million ($234 million) a year on the facility, The Australian reported, adding that the center’s final asylum seeker had recently left the island.
A Department of Home Affairs spokesperson said on Saturday that the government remained committed to the country’s “Operation Sovereign Borders” policy. The center remains ready to receive and process new unauthorized maritime arrivals and “a zero population in Nauru does not change Australia’s regional processing policy,” the spokesperson added.
Immigration has long been a divisive issue in Australia, which is known for strict policies that began under then-prime minister John Howard in 2001. Since then, thousands of asylum seekers have been sent to offshore detention centers on Manus Island and the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru, with some held there for years. The tough stance earned condemnation from the United Nations, which has called the policy arbitrary and illegal.
The issue came under the spotlight again last year following a nationwide campaign to allow an ethnic Tamil family who had been in immigration limbo for three years, to return to their Queensland community after suddenly being ejected from Australia. The family was eventually given bridging visas and allowed to stay in the community while their claim was assessed.
(Adds response from Department of Home Affairs in third paragraph)
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