On a far smaller scale that currently being experienced in Europe, Australia has had an issue with asylum seekers arriving on its shores by boat. The issue is politically contentious and has featured prominently in a number of federal election campaigns. It is Australian policy that asylum seekers who arrive by boat will never be settled in Australia; those who are found to be refugees are to be settled in third countries.
Australia operates a system of offshore processing of asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat. Asylum seekers arriving by boat are taken (against their will) to ‘regional processing centres’ where their applications for refugee status are assessed. There is currently a regional processing centre in the small Pacific island nation of Nauru and a centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Until recently, asylum seekers were detained, as opposed to simply housed, at these centres. The…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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