CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The president of the Pacific island nation of Nauru has criticized Australia’s policy of detaining asylum seekers in offshore camps as a “Pacific nightmare.”
Under the policy, adopted last year and dubbed the “Pacific Solution” by Australia’s conservative government, about 1,500 mostly Afghan and Iraqi boat people have been sent to detention camps built on neighboring Nauru and Papua New Guinea while their asylum applications are processed.
The impoverished islands agreed to house the boat people in exchange for millions of dollars in Australian aid.
But Nauru President Rene Harris said Sunday that Australia has failed to deliver on a promise to finish processing all the asylum seekers detained there by May 30.
“That ‘Pacific Solution,’ as it has been named, has somehow become a bit of a Pacific nightmare for us,” Harris told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television.
“We’ve come to the end of the understanding period of six months. I don’t think we have got to even half of that amount of what had been promised.”
Harris also said that Australia had failed to keep him informed of plans for the detainees.
“I’ve got Parliament due on Thursday and it would be nice if I could tell them something…but I have not much to say,” he said.
