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Australia begins shifting asylum seeker families to Nauru camps
Radio New Zealand International - August 21, 2013
Australia's Department of Immigration and Citizenship says 26 people, including 14 adults and 12 children were flown to the island today. The seven families, mostly Iranian, join 478 single adult men already in the Australian-run detention centre.
The Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul says sending families now is a shameful election stunt by Labor. He says the Australian government is desperate to distract attention from its collapsing so called PNG solution.
An official for DIAC says the families are being accommodated in a separate facility.
But Mr Rintoul says there are no proper facilities on Nauru for anyone, let alone for families and children. He says the new arrivals are being placed in an isolated, bulldozed area with nothing but very hastily erected tents.
The Nauru government says a group of 30 male asylum seekers have been moved from the camp to a similar facility on the Australian mainland – the Curtin Detention Centre in the remote north of Western Australia.
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