The Nauru Regional Processing Centre is an offshore Australian immigration detention facility in use from 2001 to 2008, from 2012 to 2019, and from September 2021. It is located on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru and run by the Government of Nauru. The use of immigration detention facilities is part of a policy of mandatory detention in Australia.
The Nauru facility was opened in 2001 as part of the Howard government's Pacific Solution. The centre was suspended in 2008 to fulfil an election promise by the Rudd government, but was reopened in August 2012 by the Gillard government after a large increase in the number of maritime arrivals by asylum seekers and pressure from the Abbott opposition. Current Coalition and Labor Party policy states that because all detainees attempted to reach Australia by boat, they will never be settled in Australia, even though many of the asylum seekers detained on the island have been assessed as genuine refugees.
The highest population at the centre was 1,233 detainees in August 2014. A number of detainees have since been returned to their countries of origin, including Iraq and Iran.
By November 2018, some refugees from Nauru (430 in total from both offshore facilities) had been resettled in the United States, but hopes of the United States taking more had faded. Although New Zealand had repeatedly offered to take 150 per year, the Australian Government refused. There were still 23 children on the island, as the government had bowed to public pressure and started removing families with children, after reports of suicidal behaviour and resignation syndrome had emerged.
In February 2019, the last four children on the island (of an original 200 in detention on Nauru in 2013) were resettled in the United States with their families. By 31 March 2019, there were no people held in the detention centre, which had been closed; however as of March 2020, there were 211 refugees and asylum seekers remaining on the island.
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The Pacific Solution is the name given to the government of Australia's policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention centres on island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. Initially implemented from 2001 to 2007, it had bipartisan support from the Coalition and Labor opposition at the time.
In late August 2001, the Howard government of Australia refused permission for the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa, carrying 433 rescued refugees (predominantly Hazaras of Afghanistan from a distressed fishing vessel in international waters) and 5 crew, to enter Australian waters. This triggered an Australian political controversy in the lead-up to the 2001 federal election, and a diplomatic dispute between Australia and Norway. When Tampa entered Australian waters, the Prime Minister ordered the ship be boarded by Australian special forces.
Nauru (nɑːˈuːruː or ˈnaʊruː ; Naoero), officially the Republic of Nauru (Repubrikin Naoero) and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in Micronesia, part of Oceania in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba of Kiribati, about to the east. It lies northwest of Tuvalu, northeast of Solomon Islands, east-northeast of Papua New Guinea, southeast of the Federated States of Micronesia and south of the Marshall Islands.