Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott recently made conflicting claims about the number of people resettled in Australia from Nauru and Manus Island during the Howard government's Pacific Solution.
"Mr Abbott, in pointing to this halcyon past of the Pacific Solution, has not answered the core question. Seventy per cent, thereabouts, of those people sent by Mr Howard to Nauru used it as a way station and within a couple of years were in Australia anyway," Mr Rudd said during Sunday's leaders' debate.
Mr Abbott disputed the figure.
"Thirty per cent went home, 30 per cent went to a country other than Australia and, yes, 40 per cent did come to Australia but the Prime Minister owes it to the Australian people to get his facts right," he said.
The claim: Tony Abbott claims 40 per cent of the people sent to Manus Island and Nauru were permanently settled in Australia. The verdict: His claim checks out.
The Pacific Solution Under the 2001 Pacific Solution (or "Pacific Strategy" as it was known in government) asylum seekers who arrived by boat in Australia were transferred to Nauru and Manus Island for their asylum claims to be processed.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship kept statistics on asylum seekers at the time.
Its records show 1,637 people were sent to Nauru and Manus Island between 2001 and 2007. Most had come from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Where new homes were found After being transferred to the Pacific islands, 483 people chose to give up their claims and return home voluntarily. Most of them accepted "repatriation packages", or cash payments of up to $10,000 per family. One person died.
Of those who remained, 1,153 were settled permanently in Australia and other countries.
Australia took 705, which is 43 per cent of the total - very close to Mr Abbott's claim of 40 per cent.
Mr Rudd's figure - 70 per cent - is the proportion of people who were settled in other countries as well as Australia.
At 705, Australia accounted for the largest number of settlement places. New Zealand took 401 and four other countries gave permanent homes to 47 people.
Outcome of the Pacific Solution Settled in Australia 705 Settled Elsewhere 448 Total Resettled 1,153 Returned Home Voluntarily 483 Deaths 1 Total sent to Nauru and Manus Island 1,637
The verdict Mr Abbott's claim that 40 per cent of the people sent to Manus Island and Nauru were permanently settled in Australia checks out.
