NAURU HELL ON EARTH

nauru-620x349

Every day, asylum-seeking refugees in Nauru, an island in the South Pacific, are protesting, demonstrating and leaking information on Facebook trying to attract the attention of human rights activists.  Described as a “slaughterhouse” by one Iranian refugee, this detention center is currently housing over 400 boat people that have been trying to seek asylum in Australia since September.  Condemned by the UN Refugee Agency as a center seriously violating international protection standards, the harsh living conditions in Nauru and a build-up of frustration and despair have resulted in 10 people committing suicide and over 25 currently on one of the largest hunger strikes in detention history.  

Diverted by the Australian government to an island almost 3,000 miles away, these refugees are pleading to have the center closed, to be brought back to Australia and to have their cases processed in the same way as for all other asylum seekers.  Having already faced persecution and discrimination from their own country, many are asking why they have been sent to this god forsaken island.  One refugee was quoted as saying:  “What is the difference between us and them?  We all are the same.  We are humans … not criminals.”  

Many are also asking what connection Nauru, an independent country since 1968, has with Australia …and the obvious answer seems to be that this Micronesian island will work with anyone willing to pay to keep them afloat.   Not only does it have a history of illegal money laundering, its United Nations member status has also been a lucrative source of revenue from Taiwan, China and Russia.  Flipping back and forth in its allegiance with Taiwan and China regarding the One-China policy, the People’s Republic of China purportedly paid Nauru $130 million for its vote in July, 2002.  Three years later, ties with Taiwan were reestablished and allegiance with China was severed.  Additionally, in 2009 Nauru received “humanitarian” aid in the amount of $50 million from Russia soon after Nauru’s recognition of Abkhazia. 

Another source of revenue for Nauru may be from the University of the South Pacific, which has a campus there…. and advertises that a Bachelor of Education can be obtained from what outwardly appears to be merely an apartment building with no staff except for six (6) accounting and computer personnel. 

For a country that has only 10,000 residents, a small geographic size of 21 square kilometers and an unemployment rate of 90%, one might want to also question why it’s divided into 14 districts and 169 villages and how its able to support a football league with EIGHT teams.   Sadly, it also has the most overweight people in the world with 95% of the population considered obese, a life expectancy of only 65 years, and the world’s highest level of Type 2 diabetes.  What the Hell is going on in Nauru??

 Copyright © 2012-2013 (Michelle Parsons, Getting Back on Your Path). All Rights Reserved.

 

Leave a comment

Your comment