Those in Australia have been brought here for urgent medical treatment, but many have not received adequate treatment and all have been informed they may be returned offshore at any time. They are ineligible for support and have no stability regarding their future. Those who remain on PNG and Nauru also have no idea when or where they will find safety, and continue to live in perpetual limbo.
That no Australian government in almost a decade has successfully brought this policy to a formal close is astonishing, and it demands interrogation. During its first year, more people sought asylum in Australia by boat than at any other time since boat arrivals were first recorded in the s.
Deaths at sea also continued at broadly comparable rates to previous years. People continued to seek safety in Australia via maritime routes until they physically could not do so anymore.
Despite early suggestions offshore processing was a vital complement to this turning back of boats, there is no evidence that this is so. Instead, Australian officials have gone to extraordinary lengths to intercept at sea and return hundreds of asylum seekers in recent years. What this means is that transfers offshore occurred for less than two years.
The following seven years have been spent in a prolonged and costly policy bind, as successive Labor and Coalition governments have tried to find solutions outside Australia for people who should have been settled here long ago. Meanwhile almost everyone still subject to this policy is back in Australia, having been either returned following a policy change in July or medically evacuated amid spiralling health crises offshore from According to latest figures, there are barely more than asylum seekers left in each of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
The men and women in Nauru are living in the community. The men in Papua New Guinea are in the capital, Port Moresby, having been transferred there following the closure of the Manus Island detention centre in The following graph illustrates the combined total number of asylum seekers at the processing centres in PNG and Nauru from September to September It shows that the number of people being accommodated at the centres rose sharply from July when the previous Government announced that all maritime asylum seekers would be transferred to an Offshore Processing Centre to April However, since then the numbers have been gradually declining.
The PNG centre adopted similar measures in May This change is reflected in the fluidity of the figures after these dates. However, this graph does not contain statistics on the number of asylum seekers and refugees residing offshore within the community.
Note: Approximately 1, unauthorised maritime arrivals UMAs who entered Australia between 13 August and 19 July were taken to a regional processing country. Returns occurred progressively and were completed in October The following table provides a snap-shot of the number of asylum seekers who have been accommodated at each of the processing centres at the end of each month from commencement to October The number of people accommodated at the PNG Processing Centre peaked at 1, in January , while the number of people accommodated at the Nauru Processing Centre peaked seven months later at 1, in August The highest number of people accommodated offshore was 2, in April This table does not contain statistics on the number of asylum seekers and refugees residing offshore within the community.
Figures are as at the end of the month unless otherwise stated. Approximately 1, unauthorised maritime arrivals UMAs who entered Australia between 13 August and 19 July were taken to a regional processing country.
The following graph provides a snap-shot of the composition of both Processing Centres at two different points in time. The statistics for PNG were as at mid-February noting there has only been one asylum seeker transferred to the Processing Centre since then. The statistics for Nauru were as at 13 July This graph illustrates that the vast majority of asylum seekers at both Processing Centres come from Iran. In contrast, the Nauru Processing Centre which accommodates males, females and children is largely composed of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and with people who have no country of nationality Stateless.
The following table shows the number of children accommodated at the Processing Centres each month from November to October This fact did not prompt an increase in boat arrivals. More recently, there was no spike in boat arrivals when Australia announced that people offshore would be eligible for resettlement in the United States , or when almost everyone was moved back to Australia.
We have just over a thousand asylum seekers here in Australia, and a small number offshore, who have been put through significant trauma in a failed attempt to send a harsh deterrence message to others who might consider trying to reach Australia by boat. All should be permitted to settle permanently in Australia or another appropriate country, provided that alternative is voluntary. Serious consideration should be given to what reparation and rehabilitation Australia may owe the victims of offshore processing.
Read more: Could the Biden administration pressure Australia to adopt more humane refugee policies? Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom.
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