U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2004 - Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea hosted 7,800 refugees and asylum seekers at the end of 2003. Of these approximately 2,500 lived in two refugee camps while another 5,000 lived in refugee-like settlements as rural displaced along the border. There were 300 asylum seekers from Indonesia. Most of the refugees and asylum seekers are Indonesian refugees from Papua (formerly known as Irian Jaya), an Indonesian province that shares the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea. One asylum seeker who had attempted to land on Australian territory by boat remained in Manus Island Detention camp. Australia continued to transfer asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea as part of the so-called "Pacific Solution" for unauthorized boat arrivals.

Refugees from Indonesia

(For background information of West Papua refugees in Papua New Guinea, see http://www.refugees.org/world/countryindex/papua_new_guinea.cfm.)

Australia's "Pacific Solution"

One Palestinian from Kuwait remained on Manus Island at year's end. Both Australia and Papua New Guinea rejected his asylum claim, and Australia insisted that he was Papua New Guinea's responsibility. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees declared him a refugee. Australians officials took him to Manus islands after he reached the Torres Strait Island by boat and asked for asylum. The Australians refused to grant him asylum on the ground he did not formally apply for protection while on Australian soil.