Nauru Detainees Granted Refugee Status Should Be Relocated to Australia

Australia-run Nauru processing center detainees, who were fairly assessed and received refugee status, should be immediately resettled to Australia, Refugee Council of Australia spokesman Tim O’Connor told Sputnik on Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Australia sends refugees, who come to the country to seek asylum, to offshore detention camps on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru in the South Pacific while their application is being processed by Canberra. Australia's policy in regard to migrants, applying for asylum in the country, has been repeatedly criticized by rights groups for disregarding their human rights.

"It is the view of the Refugee Council of Australia that those on Nauru who are fairly assessed and proven to be refugees, should be immediately resettled here in Australia," O’Connor said.

Last week, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, whose representatives visited the Nauru processing center in July, published a report, where they documented how some 1,200 asylum-seekers, forcibly transferred to the island from Australia, are subjected to inhuman living conditions and denial of medical care while authorities of both countries ignore the violations.

"It is our view that people who arrive in Australia seeking asylum, should be fairly assessed and if found to be refugees they should be resettled. If they are not found to be refugees under a fair process then they should be returned from whence they came. When the government puts this practical and simple policy into place the needs for gulags like Australian taxpayers have been forced to support in Nauru and Manus Island PNG will be redundant," O’Connor added.

In 2015, a special committee within the Australian Parliament was established to investigate the allegations of mass abuses and rights violations at the Nauru processing center. In September 2015, the committee published its recommendations for the government, but with no much effect.

The Nauru facility was opened in 2001 and ran until 2008. In 2012 it was reopened following the large increase in the number of maritime arrivals by asylum seekers.