UN appeals to Australia over Nauru crisis | ABC (Australia)

[Ediacara]

Last Update: Saturday, December 20, 2003. 0:46am (AEDT)
UN appeals to Australia over Nauru crisis



The United Nations refugee agency has called on Australia to avoid a human tragedy as 35 men, detained on the South Pacific island of Nauru after being refused entry to Australia, continued a hunger strike.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called on "all concerned authorities to treat them with humanity and redouble efforts to find a dignified and proper solution which does not involve continued prolonged detention in harsh conditions, including of children".

The statement came as Australia said it was sending a former immigration minister and an Afghan community leader to Nauru next week to try to end the hunger strike.

Some of the protesters have sewed their lips together in protest at their plight.

More at ABC (Australia)

[hatrack]

1. Speaking of Nauru . . .

I don't know if you've ever heard "This American Life". It's a weekly radio program out of WBEZ in Chicago, and one of their segments last week was all about Nauru. The title of the piece was "The Middle Of Nowhere" and was one of the most fascinating and horrifying things I've ever heard.

Greed, corruption and environmental degradation have absolutely leveled Nauru in the last 20 years. The closing rhetorical question posed in the segment was "What happens when a state fails? Who turns out the lights?"

You can link to it through http://www.npr.org if you have Real or MS MediaPlayer. It's well worth your time.

[bahrbearian]

2. Ya I heard it

They asked the Russian about Billion's of dollar's that were sent there and disappeared

[rooboy]

3. It's a riot...

there's a little house on Nauru which is the official "branch" for about a dozen international banks. There's a half-drunk guy sitting in it who doesn't know what the hell is going on.

But billions of dollars was laundered through there and a lot of it found its way to Australia, actually.