60 Azadeh Dastyari and Asher Hirsch international law, being convicted of theft does not automatically make a person ineligible for refugee protection.28 The example shows how these technologies of surveillance can work to keep out potential refugee claimants. Those who are unable to board a plane to Australia are forced to seek refugee protection by boat. Indeed, it could be argued that the creation of visa controls and airline liaison officers has forced those seeking protection to use more dangerous pathways to protection. Those who are unable to obtain a visa have very few options at their disposal to protect themselves and their families. However, in response to the irregular arrival of refugees by boat, Australia has further hardened its border, implementing a range of discriminatory policies directed at boat arrivals. stopping the boats Extraterritorial Processing and Detention of Asylum Seekers and Refugees Arriving by Boat Much of Australia’s current extraterritorial practices with regard to irregular boat arrivals were a response to the August 2001 arrival of the Norwegian-registered MV Tampa near Australian territory. MV Tampa, which was carrying 433 asylum seekers rescued at sea, attempted to enter Australian territorial waters and to disembark the rescued people on Australian territory of Christmas Island. The Australian government, then led by Prime Minister John Howard from the center-right Liberal party, in coalition with the National Party (which largely represents the more conservative rural communities in Australia), responded by deploying military (Special Air Services) personnel to take control of the vessel and forcibly transfer the passengers to Nauru for processing. These events marked the commencement of a policy broadly known as the “Pacific Solution,” under which any non-citizens, including refugees, interdicted at sea or arriving in certain parts of Australia without a valid visa to enter Australian territory, became vulnerable to transfer to Australia’s economically struggling former protectorates of Nauru and Papua New Guinea for processing and detention. Due to a drop in the number of boat arrivals, the number of asylum seekers transferred to Manus Island in Papua New Guinea decreased over time. By May 2005, there were no detainees in the Papua New Guinea facility. However, detention in Nauru continued until December 2007, when it was ended by Australia’s newly elected center-left Labor government. The closure of the facilities in Nauru and Papua New Guinea was, however, short lived. The Labor government announced the resumption of the transfer of asylum seekers to Nauru and Papua New Guinea in August 2012, and in July 2013 it was announced that no refugees processed in Nauru or Manus Island would ever be 28 Hathaway and Foster, The Law of Refugee Status, p. 546. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108914994 Published online by Cambridge University Press