No country willing to resettle asylum-seekers from Pacific camps – Australia

7 May, 2018 07:54 / Updated 7 years ago

Hundreds of asylum-seekers held in Australian-run detention centers in the Pacific are likely to remain there indefinitely as no other country is willing to resettle them, according to Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton. “We continue to talk to third countries, but let me tell you, there are very few prospects, if any, on the horizon,” Dutton told reporters in Canberra on Monday. As of March 31, there were 1,305 people in the camps, from various countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, and Iran, Reuters said. Australia’s immigration policy requires asylum-seekers intercepted at sea trying to reach Australia to be sent for processing to three camps in Papua New Guinea and one on the South Pacific island of Nauru. They are told they will never be settled in Australia.