Pressure grows over Nauru boatpeople

Australia is encouraging Afghan refugees to go home -- the U.N. is not so sure

CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- The Australian government says the processing of all the Tampa asylum seekers held on the Pacific island of Nauru will be completed by the end of this month, with most refugee claims expected to be rejected.

Pressure is growing on the government over the mainly Afghan and Iraqi boatpeople, with the United Nations urging Australia not to force unsuccessful applicants to return to Afghanistan.

At the same time, the President of Nauru, Rene Harris, is concerned that assurances that all detainees would be off the island by May 31 have not been met.

More than 400 asylum seekers were sent to Nauru last year after being rescued from a sinking ferry bound for Australia.

The fate of the boatpeople sparked an international incident after the Australian government denied entry to the Norwegian freighter, Tampa, which had rescued the boatpeople.

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The conservative government of John Howard arranged for them to be transferred to Nauru to have their applications for refugee protection visas assessed there, rather than in Australia.

The U.N. has now rejected more than half of the applications but also warns it is still too dangerous for the unsuccessful applicants to return to Afghanistan.

Those rejected can appeal their decisions, a process than can take many months, even years, to complete.

In the meantime, the U.N. says Australia should be patient and house the asylum seekers until it is safe for them to return.

The Australian government is keen to dissuade asylum seekers from the appeal option, and is offering rejects an A$2,000 (U.S.$1,140) resettlement offer to go back to Afghanistan.

The offer, which climbs to A$10,000 for families, is considered generous given the annual average Afghani income is only A$200.

Many of the Afghani asylum seekers have had their claims rejected because of the fall of the Taliban government.

Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, said Thursday Australia would encourage unsuccessful refugee applicants to return to Afghanistan.

"We have a welcoming and positive approach to people who wish to migrate legally to Australia or to come as part of our refugee resettlement program," Downer said.

"But we are very tough on people who try to get here illegally and on people smugglers who are trying to accumulate personal wealth on the back of who they mislead into believing that they can get into Australia illegally."

"It's an approach that's been effective and I think there is a lot of interest in Europe about how we've made this work so well," Downer said.

'Exceeded expectations'

The majority of Nauru asylum-seekers have had their refugee status disallowed

The U.N. says more than 915,000 Afghan have returned to their homeland and it expects that as many as 2 million Afghans could return this year.

"Despite the precarious conditions inside Afghanistan, the repatriation is already the largest and fastest we've seen since the Iraqi Kurds returned home in 1991, surpassing even the massive 1999 return to Kosovo," U.N. spokesman Kris Janowski said earlier this week.

The U.N. refugee agency is not encouraging refugees to return home, only assisting Afghanis who have already up made their minds.

UNHCR is worried that Afghanistan will not be able to absorb the high number of Afghan returnees following recent reductions in reintegration aid, food and transport assistance as a result of lagging donor support for relief agencies operating in the war-ravaged country.

"The Afghans' enthusiasm has exceeded expectations, but in light of the declining pace of donor contributions, we fear that the sustainability of the refugees' return could be in jeopardy," Janowski said.