AUSTRALIA: The president of the tiny island of Nauru has described Australia's "Pacific solution" for handling Middle-Eastern asylum-seekers as a "Pacific nightmare". Nauru, which is in the South Pacific between the Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands, is crucial to Australia's asylum policy.
Meanwhile, Australian authorities yesterday signalled the possible arrival of a new wave of asylum-seekers.
Nauru's president, Mr Rene Harris, said in a radio interview that he was frustrated the Australian government had failed to keep him informed about the fate of more than 1,000 asylum-seekers who remain detained on the island.
Nauru agreed with Australia to house and feed more than 1,000 mainly Afghan and Iraqi asylum-seekers, but the detainees were to have left the Pacific nation by May 30th.
That deadline has come and gone and the refugee applications of 700 asylum-seekers have yet to be processed.
Mr Harris said: "I've got parliament due on Thursday and it would be nice if I could tell them something. But I have not much to say." He also claimed that the Australian government had not kept its promise to provide Nauru with $30 million Australian dollars in goods and services as part of the deal.
The asylum-seekers were shipped to Nauru by the Australian navy last September after troops boarded the Norwegian container ship Tampa, which had picked up the people from a sinking fishing boat coming from Indonesia.
Other asylum-seekers were shipped to Manus, about 350 km off Papua New Guinea, where their claims for asylum are being processed. The action was seen as a vote-winner for Australia's Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, in last November's elections.
Last Friday, the Australian government ruled all its islands off the northern coastline as no-go zones for boatpeople, who in the past had been allowed to apply for asylum once they reached these Australian territories.
Immigration Minister Mr Philip Ruddock said they would be turned away or shipped to Manus or Nauru. The move effectively means boatpeople have to reach the Australian mainland before they have the right to plead for asylum.
The policy may be tested next week, after Customs Minister Mr Chris Ellison said yesterday that a new wave of boat people was expected from Indonesia. Mr Ruddock says no boats have made it to Australia since the Tampa incident.
Mr Ellison said in a statement that a boat carrying asylum-seekers could be bound for Australia, while others may be preparing to set off from Indonesia. He said one boat had passed through Indonesian waters but he was unable to confirm its origin or destination.
"Intelligence from Indonesian authorities suggests one vessel may have recently transited the Indonesian archipelago bound for either Australia or a destination in the South Pacific," Mr Ellison said.
Indonesian authorities had also warned that more asylum-seekers were preparing to come to Australia, he said.
Should the boat be intercepted by Australian authorities it would be the first this year. Australia has faced widespread international criticism over its tough immigration policies.