Any offer to host an asylum-seeker processing centre in the Solomons must be refused by Canberra, which should stop trying to off-load its problems onto fragile Pacific states recently retired Solomon Islands MP and former deputy PM Fred Fono. He said his government’s offer was ill-conceived, would likely trigger land disputes and lacked any community support. Solomon Islands was “loaded with too many problems” without taking on a controversial asylum-seeker processing role, Mr Fono said in Honiara.
Refugee groups have accused the Solomon Islands of simply being money hungry by offering to house asylum seekers for Australia. Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says the Federal Government needs to ignore the request: “I’m surprised that Australia would have any compunction about considering the political state when searching for a place to dump Asylum Seekers” she said.
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