Nauru yesterday announced that asylum seekers at an Australian immigration camp on the Pacific island are no longer to be locked up, saying that they are instead to be free to roam around the tiny nation.
The Nauruan government said the regional processing center had been converted into an “open center,” giving its inhabitants freedom of movement.
It also promised to process all outstanding refugee claims for those living in the center — about 600 of them — within one week.
“The start of detention-free processing is a landmark day for Nauru and represents an even more compassionate program, which was always the intention of our government,” Nauruan Minister for Finance and Justice David Adeang said.
The Nauru center was set up as part of Canberra’s hardline policies on asylum seekers under which those arriving on people-smuggling boats are not held in Australian territory.
Another camp is located on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.
Adeang said Australia was assisting the transition to an open center, including providing more police support and suitable healthcare for asylum seekers.
Under the plan, the number of community liaison officers is to be increased from 135 to 320 to help asylum seekers — who come from nations including Iran and Sri Lanka — settle in the nation of 10,000.
The Australian government welcomed Nauru’s announcement, saying that more limited open arrangements had been in place at the camp since February, allowing some detainees to leave the center unescorted during agreed hours on certain days.
“We also welcome the news that the Nauruan government has undertaken to finalize the remaining refugee claims that have been under consideration for some time,” Australian Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton said in a statement, adding that Canberra is committed to the regional processing arrangements.
“We will continue to support the government of Nauru... to deliver settlement services to refugees,” he said.
Refugee advocates, who allege abuses — including rape — have occurred on the island, said the change was an 11th-hour move that coincided with an Australian court case this week challenging the legality of Canberra’s policy.
Melbourne-based Human Rights Law Centre legal advocacy director Daniel Webb said fundamental problems with the policy remained.
“A transition to an open center [is] an important and hard-won improvement, but letting people go for a walk does not resolve the fundamental problems caused by indefinitely warehousing them on a tiny remote island,” he said.
“The men, women and children on Nauru need a real solution — settlement in a safe place where they can rebuild their lives. Instead they’re being left languishing in an environment that is clearly unsafe for women and children,” he added.
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