Failed "Pacific Solution"
Peter Mac The Howard Government has acted to stifle revelations about its infamous "Pacific Solution" for asylum seekers. When 45 Nauru detainees recently went on hunger strike over their incarceration, the Minister for Immigration, Amanda Vanstone, flew to Nauru. Her objective was concealment. Treatment of the starving strikers was beyond the resources of the Nauru hospital, and the Australian Medical Association was preparing to send a medical team to assess their condition. The Minister offered Nauru $30 million in aid, and Nauruan President Rene Harris promptly announced that the AMA visit was "no longer necessary". Harris' rival, Nauruan Finance Minister Kinza Clodumar, hinted broadly that the offer was conditional on Nauru withdrawing the AMA invitation. The strike highlighted the huge problems facing both the Nauruans and the detainees. The British Phosphate Company plundered Nauru's massive phosphate resources for decades. The ordinary Nauruan people derived little benefit from this industry, which left 80 percent of the island a barren "moonscape" After mining ceased, the Nauruans won legal compensation for the Island's devastation and impoverishment. However, much of the compensation paid to date has mysteriously disappeared. Nauru now has little arable land or drinking water, and faces huge debts and the threat of rising sea waters. The "Pacific solution" offered a financial lifeline for the Nauruan government, as well as concealment of the Howard government's asylum seeker treatment. Australia has paid $30 million in rent for the camp over two years, gives Nauru $3 million per annum in aid, and will give another $2.5 million in compensation for loss of phosphate revenues. But this won't be enough to save the Island. The Howard Government could offer the Nauruans assisted migration, but this would contravene its own immigration policies. So instead of adopting this more humane approach, the government is apparently investigating offering the islanders an uninhabited island in return for leaving their ruined homeland! And where does this leave the detainees? The hunger strike ended after the government was forced to offer the detainees some grudging assurances for their future. Some of them have been detained for more than two years. Virtually ignored by the mass media, their chances of gaining temporary protection visas are statistically about half those of mainland detainees. Since the overthrow of the Taliban government, only eight Afghan asylum seekers have received visas. 435 applicants have been refused, of whom 356 are now appealing to the Refugee Review Tribunal. However, Afghan warlord fighting has increased, and of 3368 boat refugees detained since the Tampa crisis, only 100 have returned (or been returned), including 33 who accepted government-assisted passage. Two have already died, including one killed by Taliban forces. Some 3000 Afghan asylum seeker cases are pending. But there's hope. Firstly, the Nauru detainees have lodged a Supreme Court claim of illegal detention. In order to win the case, the government must show that only Nauruans are detaining the refugees. The Government says the camp guards are acting as Nauruan police subject to Nauruan laws, but they're all Australians, paid by the Australian government or Australian companies. President Harris has also pointed out that Nauru's involvement is limited to supplying the land for the camp. The refugees therefore stand a good chance of winning. Secondly, the ALP has at last promised to abolish temporary protection visas. ALP leader Mark Latham has pledged to end the "Pacific solution" and to get 90 percent of asylum claims determined in 90 days. All this offers the refugees some hope. But of course the best hope of all lies in the struggle to eject the Howard Government from office.