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The Pacific Solution was the name given to the Australian government policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention camps on small island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. The Pacific Solution is comprised of three central strategies. Firstly, thousands of islands were controversially excised from Australia’s migration zone or Australian territory. Secondly, the Australian Defence Force commenced Operation Relex to interdict vessels containing asylum seekers. Finally, these asylum seekers were removed to third countries in order to determine their refugee status. There were a number of pieces of legislation supporting this policy. The policy was developed in response to the 2001 Tampa affair and was implemented by then Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock.

Asylum seekers were intercepted at sea while sailing from Indonesia and moved using Australian naval vessels. Detention camps were set up on Christmas Island, Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, and on the tiny island nation of Nauru. Some were also accepted for processing by New Zealand. Most of the asylum seekers came from Afghanistan (largely of the Hazara ethnic group), Iraq (fleeing Saddam Hussein), Iran, China, and Vietnam.

All costs associated with running the centres and processing the asylum applications were met by Australia.

Criticism of the Pacific Solution

The policy received criticism from a number of areas, with Amnesty International, refugee rights groups and other non-governmental organisations claiming that Australia was failing to meet its international obligations. The ad-hoc nature in which the policy evolved was also criticised, as it resulted in people being moved to Manus Island and Nauru before facilities were ready.

As of May 29, 2005, 1,229 asylum seekers had been processed on Nauru. Most of those detained were eventually found to be legitimate refugees, sometimes after more than three years in detention. As of October 15, 2005 all but two remaining asylum seekers had been transferred to mainland Australia with the majority of these entering the community with temporary protection visas. While those two were eventually resettled, one to Australia and one to a Scandinavian country, additional groups of Burmese and Sri Lankan Tamil refugees were brought to the island in 2006 and 2007.

The cost of the Pacific Solution was over $15.5 million AUD in 2003/2004, taken from the AusAID budget of $69.9 million.

Several other countries are now considering setting up similar migration schemes, in particular a proposal from the EU to set up off-shore "asylum seeker processing centres" in North Africa.

External links

• Oxfam Community Aid Abroad - Adrift In The Pacific
• Nauru Wire
• Refugee Action Australia: Information on the Pacific Solution

• Immigration to Australia
• Australian migration law
• Refugees
• Internments