SYDNEY (AFP) — Australia's widely criticised "Pacific Solution" policy of holding asylum seekers on remote islands ended Friday when the last detainees flew out of Nauru, the government said.
The 21 Sri Lankans who had been held on the tiny island in the South Pacific for nearly a year would be resettled in Australia, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said in a statement.
The dismantling of the system honours a pledge made by the new centre-left government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd which ousted former leader John Howard and his conservative coalition in November elections.
"The Pacific Solution was a cynical, costly and ultimately unsuccessful exercise introduced on the eve of a federal election by the Howard government," Evans said.
A total of 1,637 people were detained on Nauru or the Papua New Guinea island of Manus under the policy, introduced in 2001 in an attempt to discourage boatpeople from seeking asylum in Australia.
The bulk of the refugees housed on Nauru and Manus had fled Iraq and Afghanistan -- two countries where Australia still has troops committed, Evans pointed out.
Some were sent home, but 1,153 or 70 percent were ultimately resettled in Australia or other countries, often after years in detention.
The Sri Lankans from Nauru landed in Brisbane later Friday, and would be sent to new homes in Cairns, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne, an immigration official said.
Nauru, a tiny and impoverished nation paid by Australia to house the detainees, first became the focus of global attention in 2001 when a boat-load of Afghan refugees was offloaded there.
The detention centre hit worldwide headlines again in early 2004 when a number of detainees staged a hunger strike and sewed up their lips in protest at their incarceration.
Canberra pumped a total of 289 million dollars (260 million US) into the centres on Nauru and Manus between 2001 and 2007, Evans said.
The Nauru government has complained that closing the centre will punch a big hole in its budget, and Evans pledged "generous aid" and development programmes would continue.
The asylum claims of people arriving in Australian waters by boat in future will be processed on Australia's own Christmas Island, where a new immigration detention centre has been built.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Richard Towle said the agency was pleased to see the government act so quickly to wind up the "Pacific Solution."
"This is the end of a long and fairly painful chapter in Australian asylum policy and practice and we're delighted that Nauru finally will have no more refugees on it from now on," he said.
However, the UNHCR would carefully monitor the processing centre on Christmas Island and press for procedures there to be as close as possible as those that apply to asylum seekers on the mainland.
Howard's tough action on illegal immigrants was seen as a vote winner in Australia, and the government has pledged to maintain a hard line against people arriving by boat.
"There's no suggestion of us weakening the policy in terms of border security and intercepting boats headed towards Australia," Evans said in December.
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