Nauru blocks protest over detained asylum seekers

[dArKeR]

AFP , SYDNEY
Monday, Jun 21, 2004,Page 5

Nauru said yesterday it would turn away two yachts carrying rights activists staging a World Refugee Day protest against Australia's detention of illegal immigrants on the South Pacific Island.

The "Flotilla of Hope" carried teddy bears for children in the island detention centre set up for the Australian government as part of its so-called Pacific solution to the problem of people-smuggling.

But Nauru government spokeswoman Helen Bogdan said yesterday that the Refugee Action Coalition's yachts Eureka and One Off, which left Brisbane on May 23 on the 4,000km voyage, would not be allowed to land.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/06/21/2003175939