Solomons PM rejects taking asylum seekers

The Solomon Islands says it has rejected a request from Australia to accept asylum seekers. Source: AAP

THE Solomon Islands government says it has rejected a request from Australia to accept asylum-seekers.

Solomons Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo said Canberra had approached him about sending asylum-seekers for processing but he had dismissed the idea.

"No, we will never consider that. It was informally put to us and I rejected it," he told reporters in Fiji.

"I basically said to them, (asylum-seekers) have made a choice to go to Australia, they don't make a choice to come to the Solomons."

Under the policy pursued by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, asylum-seekers arriving by ship will be processed and settled in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Darcy Lilo said he objected to the policy being labelled the "Pacific solution" as it was something that Australia was seeking to impose on the region, which consists largely of poor island states.

"It's not right, because a Pacific solution has to be discussed properly with all the Pacific leaders," he told the Fijivillage news website.

"So you cannot invent something in Australia and say that is the Pacific solution. That's wrong,"

Fiji's Foreign Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola last month accused Australia of trying to "dump" its refugee problem onto its Pacific neighbours, labelling the policy "inconsiderate, prescriptive, high-handed and arrogant".

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