Scores of detained asylum seekers take Australian cash and return home
SYDNEY: Dozens of asylum seekers held in a detention centre in Papua New Guinea have elected to accept cash from Australia to return to their home countries, officials and refugees said, the largest exodus from the South Pacific camp in four years.
Australia has ratcheted up efforts to clear the Manus Island detention centre of people who have twice had their refugee claims rejected, amid fears a deal for the United States to take refugees has fallen through.
Reuters reported late last month that asylum seekers were being repeatedly called to meet with Australian officials and pressured to take amounts of up to 25,000 to return to their home countries or face deportation.
As legal attempts to halt the threat of deportation stall, as many 29 men, all of whom have spent four years in detention, have elected to leave in the last few weeks, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. A group of nine Nepalese men were to depart PNG yesterday, one source said.
One source told Reuters approximately 14 detainees have asked the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to facilitate their transfer home. Refugees on Manus Island said a further 15 have not used the IOM to return home.
“There is a growing thought that it is better to move on and get on with our lives rather than hang onto some false hope. We haven’t seen as many people leave since the first year of the camp being reopened in late 2012,” an official Australian source told Reuters, who declined to be named. — Reuters