Nauru Refugees Say They’re About To Run Out Of Food Amid COVID Outbreak
As of March, there are 122 refugees detained in Nauru.
Refugees detained in Australia’s offshore detention centre on Nauru claim they’re days away from running out of food amid a COVID crisis on the island nation.
Nauru had largely managed to remain free of COVID throughout the pandemic, only recording its first two cases on March 31. But since then, cases have skyrocketed with a total of 861 cases reported on Thursday.
For context, Nauru has a population of only 10,000 people, and is the second smallest nation in the world — second only to Vatican City. And, as of May 31 2022, 112 refugees remain in Australia’s offshore detention centre on the island.
According to refugees on the island, the outbreak has forced local bank to closed, while the local bus service — organised by Canstruct, the case management service company for refugees in Nauru — has been paused, leaving those in detention unable to buy food or medication.
“It will be two or three days before we run out of everything,” one refugee told the Sydney Morning Herald. “We don’t have transport to get medications and food. We don’t have money.”
Rard No 3 — the holding company for Canstruct — made $101 million in profit last financial year, according to a report from The Guardian. This is thanks, in part, to the fact that it currently costs Australian taxpayers more than $12,000 per refugee per day for offshore processing to happen on Nauru.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil is yet to comment on the situation in Nauru, or what Australia is doing to assist the refugees allegedly struggling to obtain basic food and medical supplies amid Nauru’s ongoing COVID wave.
Australia’s treatment of refugees in Nauru has been repeatedly criticised by human rights advocates and the UN for allegedly violating basic human rights, as well as Australia’s refugee and asylum seeker policies.
But despite this, last week Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed that the Albanese Government maintains committed to processing refugees and asylum seekers in Nauru.
“We’ve been clear about the government’s maintenance of (the centre),” she told reporters in New Zealand last week.
“The sustainability and debt financing for developing countries, particularly those in our region, is of interest to both our nations.”
“It goes to sovereignty and choice and it goes to stability. It also potentially goes to the security of the region.”