Australian Government Transfers Over 40 Boat Refugees to Nauru Detention Center

The Australian government has transferred South Asian migrants who arrived on the Australian coast to an offshore refugee detention center on the Pacific island nation of Nauru.

A protest against refugee detention centers in Nauru and Papua New Guinea is taking place in Sydney, Australia, in 2017.
[Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

According to major local media, on the morning of the 18th, the Australian government put about 40 asylum seekers on a plane and transferred them to Nauru. They were found on the coast of the Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia, northwest Australia, on the 15th. They are from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and were discovered by locals after crossing to Australia on a small boat from Indonesia.

Claire O'Neill, Minister of the Department of Home Affairs, said the government's determination to protect the border is absolute, stating, "Since I took office, everyone who attempted to land in Australia by boat has wasted thousands of dollars and returned to their home country or Nauru."

The Nauru detention center has sparked controversy even within Australia. To prevent refugees who entered Australia by boat from the Middle East and South Asia from setting foot on Australian soil, Australia established refugee detention facilities on nearby islands, Nauru and Papua New Guinea, in the early 2000s. At one point, the detention center housed more than 1,000 refugees. Since then, the number of detainees has decreased amid ongoing human rights concerns.

After the center-left progressive Labor government took office in May 2022, it set a goal to eliminate all detainees at the Nauru refugee detention center and convert the facility into a permanent emergency management status, but this has not yet been implemented. The Australian government also sent asylum seekers who arrived on the Western Australian coast to the Nauru refugee detention center in November last year.

The center-right Liberal Party of Australia expressed concern that since the Labor Party came to power, 303 asylum seekers have arrived on the Australian coast via 12 confirmed boats, and that there may be more unconfirmed illegal asylum seekers due to inadequate border surveillance under the current government. However, the Australian government denied claims that border security has loosened under the current administration, stating, "Border surveillance is consistently operated in the same manner by all governments."