“It is not because they are bad people”: Australia’s refugee resettlement in papua new guinea and nauru

Abstract

For almost two decades, Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island have been central to the Australian government’s efforts to dispose of unwanted asy-lum seekers trying to reach Australian shores and to deter future asylum seekers from even attempting to obtain humanitarian protection. This policy, sometimes called the “Pacific Solution,” has created challenges for local Pacific populations and has placed these two Pacific Islands in the center of a geopolitical humanitarian crisis. The rhetoric surrounding the role of Nauru and Manus often positions their contemporary dilemmas within a framework of continued imperialist or neocolonial challenges to their sovereignty by their Australian neighbor.