Australia to end `Pacific Solution'

Australia's government, making its second big policy shift in just a week in power, began yesterday to scrap a controversial scheme which sent refugees to remote foreign islands for processing.

The move came exactly a week after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change in his first official act after ousting former prime minster John Howard's conservative government in federal elections.

The initial step in dismantling the "Pacific Solution" would be to grant refugee status to seven men from Myanmar held on the island of Nauru for more than a year, Immigration Minister Chris Evans told national radio.

"I'm hopeful that those Burmese will be returned in the next week or two in time for Christmas," he said. "There's no reason why they shouldn't be processed quickly. In fact in my view they should have been processed some time ago, but we're keen to resolve their issues."

The refugees from Myanmar would be settled in Brisbane, Queensland, Evans said.

The government also hoped to quickly resolve the asylum claims of about 80 Sri Lankans held on Nauru, he said.

Nauru, a tiny and impoverished nation paid by Australia to house detainees, became a focus of global attention in 2001 when a boatload of Afghan refugees was offloaded there.

The Nauru detention center hit worldwide headlines again in early 2004 when a number of detainees staged a hunger strike and sewed up their lips in protest at their incarceration.

Refugee Immigration Legal Centre spokesman David Manne, who represented the Myanmar refugees, said they were delighted by the news that they would be granted asylum.

"They were very happy, extremely relieved about the news and really looking forward to being able to rebuild their lives and to make a real contribution in the future in Australia," he said.

Under "Pacific Solution," boatpeople arriving in Australian waters were sent to detention centers on Nauru or Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, sometimes languishing there for years.