7 Sep 2012

Nauru asylum seeker tent camp ready by Friday next week

3:20 pm on 7 September 2012

The President of Nauru says the first of two possible camps to house Australia's asylum seekers should be ready in a week.

Australian soldiers have been readying the site and have pitched tents as temporary accommodation for people seeking refugee status.

Nauru and Papua New Guinea last month accepted Canberra's request that they house asylum seekers trying to reach Australia.

Nauru's President Sprent Dabwido says re-opening both the island's camps used under the earlier so called Pacific Solution is being investigated.

He says the island could feasibly house up to 3 thousand asylum seekers but initially just a few dozen will be sent.

"What they are giving us to start off is a small number. I think they are talking maybe 20 to 50 people to move in, in the first group, yeah."

Mr Dabwido says he expects these numbers to rise on a weekly basis and the first camp to be holding several hundred people by the end of October.