My name is Alex Sheshunoff. I lived in Palau for several years, met my wife there, built a house in Angaur, and wrote a book largely set in Palau. I care deeply about the people of Palau, many of whom I’ve considered among my closest friends. In the last few days, I’ve been flooded with messages about Palau’s considering joining El Salvadaor and South Sudan as a destination for migrants trying to enter the United States. As an independent country, Palau will choose whatever path is in its best interest. I would urge your leadership, however, to consider the path they are choosing. If this scheme proceeds, the Palauan brand will be forever associated with Guantanamo Bay, Alligator Alcatraz, and the brutal detention centers of El Salvador and South Sudan.
Beware of the trap the U.S. government is setting. Our own leadership in the United States is choosing places for prisons based largely on the messaging – they want to communicate to our citizens, to the press, to migrants and to the world, that they are sending people to terrible places. Palau now will be known as one of those terrible places. As far as reputation goes, Palau can position itself as a prison or a paradise. But not both.
Tourism in Palau will never be the same. When people choose to go to a Pacific Island, most are largely uninformed about what the place or people are really like. They have many options and make decisions based on vague associations and remembrances. And no one wants to go on honeymoon to a prison. Most people have no idea how big Palau is and that a prison in Babeldaob might have a relatively small footprint. Once you are making the argument that ‘our tourism areas are far from the containment camps’ you have already lost the debate. Expect to see huge drops in tourism, except perhaps tourists on package tours who do not spend much money and who are only looking for the cheapest destination possible. Expect too that foreign investment will drop, except the kind of investment that is drawn to lawless, corrupt regimes like those in El Salvador and South Sudan.
International coverage of Palau’s potentially becoming an island for prisoners already is doing lasting damage to its reputation. I’d urge your leadership to consider taking a different path and letting this shiny lure slide by. Because once on the hook – and once Palau is known as a place people are sent as punishment – there’s no going back.
By: Alex Sheshunoff