The Australian government said on Feb. 3 that the last remaining children held on the Pacific island of Nauru while seeking asylum “would be resettled in the United States, a long-awaited end to a controversial practice and a victory for migrant advocates,” the New York Times reported.
The Guardian reported that the number of children remaining on the island totals four and that they were preparing to fly to the US with their families for resettlement.
“They are the last of the more than 200 children who had been held at the island’s processing centre when the Coalition won government in 2013,” the Guardian’s Feb. 2 article said.
“The psychiatric and physical suffering of children has been the major criticism of the government’s policy since 2013 to send asylum seekers who attempt to reach Australia by boat to an immigration camp on Nauru or men-only facilities on Papua New Guinea,” wrote AP reporter Rod McGuirk.
The United States agreed in 2016 to accept up to 1,250 refugees and ore than 1,000 others remain on the islands “and face uncertain futures,” wrote McGuirk.
The Immigration and Refugee News Digest 