Australia to spend millions on empty refugee center, says newspaper

Australia will continue to fund its controversial offshore detention processing center on Nauru even as the facility’s remaining refugees leave, in an effort to deter human smugglers from sending ships into the country, according to local media.

The government will spend up to A$350 million ($234 million) a year on the facility, The Australian reported, adding that the center’s last asylum seeker had recently left the island. An Interior Department spokesman said the government remained committed to the country’s “Operation Sovereign Borders” policy, the newspaper reported separately.