Nauru accepts 200 more migrants

Nauru Anaoe Village awaits more than 500 refugees

By Damian Grammaticas in Nauru

The Pacific Ocean island of Nauru has agreed to provide temporary shelter to over 200 more people after another boat filled with asylum seekers was intercepted off Australia's north-west coast at the weekend.

That brings the total now heading to Nauru, where they will have their asylum claims processed, to more than 500.

Agreeing to house the asylum seekers was a simple decision to help an old friend.

Nauru president Rene Harris

The Australian Government said it had reached an understanding to provide aid to the island in return for it accepting the boat people.

They are now on an Australian naval troop ship, sailing for Papua New Guinea, from where they will be flown to their final destinations.

At least half the group are from Afghanistan.

Inhospitable

Nauru hardly provides the new life they were looking for.

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The island lies just below the equator and more than 1,500 kilometres north-east of Australia.

It is a tiny and dilapidated pinprick in the central Pacific.

Nauru is the world's smallest republic with 12,000 people living on 21 square kilometres.

Mining for phosphate used in fertilizer sustained Nauru for almost a century but the deposits are running out, the processing plants lie rusting and under-used.

Peter Reith promises money and supplies

The open-cast mines have shredded much of Nauru's landscape, leaving it barren and sweltering.

Nauru's President, Rene Harris, said agreeing to house the asylum seekers was a simple decision to help an old friend.

Australia asked for assistance and Nauru agreed, he said.

Australian aid

But there are inducements.

Australia's Defence Minister, Peter Reith, who is on Nauru, said his government will run the operation and pay all the bills.

Australia will also provide about $10 million worth of new generators and fuel so the island can have proper power supplies.

It will give new educational and sporting scholarships so up to six Nauruan students can study in Australia and, Mr Reith said, $500,000 worth of unpaid bills at Australian hospitals which have treated Nauruans will be picked up by his government.

The unpaid bills have meant that the Australian hospitals have not been treating more Nauruans and the islanders will now have better access to medical care in Australia.

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