Behind the wire in Australia's 'Pacific Gulag' On the Pacific island of Nauru Somali asylum-seeker Khadar Hrisi is afraid even to go to sleep because of his wife's repeated suicide attempts. They live in a refugee settlement camp, a place defined by desperation and rarely visited by outsiders. The vast majority of inhabitants are there against their will, the subjects of a controversial deal between this island's government and Australian authorities keen to rid themselves of migrants.