Pacific Solution

Our families had travelled thousands of kilometres by bus, truck and plane. Finally, after so many years apart we were about to be reunited.

– Narrator Mohammad Hussain Fayyaz

When I said "Hello Dad" and he said "hello" I was nearly crying, because I (was) very excited and very happy to talk to him and to hear his voice.

– 'Tampa Boy' turned New Zealand citizen Habib Husseini

In the days that followed, the other defining elements of the policy were put into place: islands were excised from the Australian migration zone to prevent asylum seekers lodging visa applications; detention centres were set up on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and the tiny and bankrupt republic of Nauru; and a reluctant Navy was engaged to intercept and turn back vessels containing asylum seekers.

– Writer Michael Gordon on events in Australia after the Tampa rescued 433 asylum seekers, The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 August 2011

...Arne Rinnan, the veteran captain of the Norwegian freighter Tampa, defied orders from Canberra to stay away from Australian waters with his cargo of 433 rescued asylum seekers, many of them in urgent need of medical attention, and proceeded towards Christmas Island, the tiny Australian territory that sits below Java. [Later that day] heavily armed SAS troops seized control of the ship, with John Howard introducing retrospective legislation giving his government the power to remove the Tampa, and any similarly unwelcome vessels in the future, irrespective of the circumstances or the consequences.

– Writer Michael Gordon on the events of 29 August 2001, The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 August 2011