Nauru president says refugees under ‘Pacific solution’ will need to move on
Nauru’s President warns refugees in his country under Australia’s “Pacific solution” cannot stay indefinitely.
Nauru’s President Baron Waqa has said refugees in his country under Australia’s “Pacific solution” cannot stay indefinitely, but he would not intervene to encourage their resettlement in New Zealand.
The Pacific Island Forum host today dismissed reports of widespread depression and self-harm among refugees and asylum-seekers on Nauru, after a report by the Refugee Council of Australia declared those stuck on the island were “broken”.
“They are living among us. They are running their lives normally, just like any other Nauruan,” Mr Waqa said. “They are provided all the services that are available to the Nauruans, and we live together very happily.”
He said his country would not seek to encourage Australia to agree to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s offer to take 150 of the refugees: “That’s between Australia and New Zealand. We have no involvement in that except we provide support to the Australian government.”
However, he said the refugees would have to leave the island at some point. “As we made clear … when we signed the MOU, refugees will not be settled in Nauru. They cannot. So they will need to move on.
“They treat it as a transition to their next destination.”
The Australian visited the Ewa Lodge refugee camp today, away from the main refugee processing centre, accompanied by a Nauruan government official.
About 130 people, all approved refugees, live in the settlement’s prefabricated cabins.
The Nauruan official said the cabins were not initially airconditioned but the refugees installed cooling units themselves.
Hamed, in his mid-30s, said those in the camp were almost universally depressed and wanted to leave Nauru.
“No one is happy — not the refugees, not the Australian taxpayers,” he said. “Hopefully the New Zealand offer is accepted. But that offer is just for 150 people. Here (in this camp) there are more than 100.”
While there have been cases of asylum-seekers successfully participating in Nauruan society, The Australian spoke to several in the camp who complained of illness and poor medical care, and alleged bullying of children at local schools.
Unlike many refugees on Nauru, they did not work and spent much of their time at the camp, they said.
Ms Ardern this week repeated her offer to resettle refugees from Nauru but her Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, took a harder line, saying New Zealand should not interfere in Australian and Nauruan business.
“There are 50,000 to 60,000 in this country looking for homes and opportunity, and our job is to make sure we fix our country up first than take on the whole world’s problems,” he told NZ’s 1 NEWS.
The Pacific Island Forum’s secretary-general, Meg Taylor, said she didn’t like to see criticism of Nauru or Papua New Guinea by Australian media organisations and politicians over the asylum-seeker processing deals struck with both countries.
“I get quite agitated when I read press and when I see constant criticism of our island countries,” Dame Meg said. “There are two parties to this agreement … a lot of the criticism does come from the Australian press and from political parties in Australia, as if this was all the idea of our countries.
“I think there was good intention. I know that from my own country (PNG), there was an offer to house people on Manus. But it is just constant criticism at the other end.”
There are currently 783 refugees and asylum-seekers still on Nauru. Answers to parliament revealed 165 people have been repatriated from the island to their home countries.
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