No, not the punchline to an obscure joke – just another chapter in the Australian government’s on-going efforts to “process” asylum claimants in small, semi-dependent, Pacific Island nations.

Eight Rohingya arrived on Ashmore Reef and have since been transferred to Christmas Island, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Plans are afoot to foil any claims to live in Australia. The report notes that as early as this week the government hopes to move them to Nauru as part of the so-called “Pacific Solution”.

No kidding…I assume this is not the start to life in the southern hemisphere that the Rohingya were dreaming of.