When I first posted on the Rohingyas on Nauru I said I would keep New Mandala updated as the story unfolds.

The punchline — courtesy of Australia’s perverse system of third country detention, eventually involved a secret flight to one of the world’s most isolated detention facilities. In Australia, some have dubbed this system the “Pacific Solution“. To “process” a handful of detainees, the Nauru centre costs tens of millions of Australian taxpayer dollars. Its purpose is to ensure that appeals through Australia’s legal system against unfavourable judgements are difficult, if not impossible. Asylum seekers, like these Rohingya, are conveniently deemed not to have reached Australian territory.

According to an Immigration Department spokesman, quoted by The Age, the Nauru centre cost $33.7 million to keep open in 2004-05. Recently, even when it was empty it costs millions and millions of dollars.

I reckon the Rohingyas don’t have a clue why somebody is expending so much effort trying to keep them out of Australia. In their lighter moments, I’m sure they will have a chuckle at the absurdity of their position. I guess Australia is just trying to send a message to all the other Rohingyas fed up with the region’s most loathed military dictatorship. That message is loud and clear. With apologies, it’s even a line in our national anthem.

For those who’ve come across the seas, we’ve boundless plains to share…

…on Nauru…