Hollywood star and UN refugee envoy Angelina Jolie has accepted an invitation to visit the small island of Nauru where Australia sends asylum-seekers for processing and resettlement, the government said Monday.
Jolie, a UN goodwill ambassador, was invited by the Pacific island nation’s President Baron Waqa when they met at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence Against Women in Conflict in London.
“The government of Nauru can confirm that Angelina Jolie has accepted an invitation by President Baron Waqa to visit our nation,” a government spokeswoman told the media.
“We believe this will be a wonderful opportunity to showcase the facilities for refugees on Nauru, which we believe are a world-best practice.”
Under Canberra’s punitive offshore detention policy, asylum-seekers attempting to arrive by boat are transferred to camps in Nauru or Papua New Guinea for processing and permanent resettlement outside Australia.
Most of those sent to Nauru are families with more than 1,000 people currently held and another 99 having been resettled in the community.
