The first deportation of a person from Australia to the Pacific Island nation of Nauru under a billion-dollar deal to resettle non-citizens with criminal records raises “serious human rights concerns”, Australia’s human rights commissioner said on Wednesday.
Australia last month agreed to pay Nauru $2.5 billion over three decades to host several hundred deported non-citizens.
The deal has revived criticism from human rights groups that the government is “dumping” refugees in small island states and has drawn comparisons with US President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
Nauru President David Adeang, re-elected in a national poll this month, last week accepted $388 million from Australia to receive the first “special cohort” on 30-year visas, a spokesman said.
The island, which has a population of 12,000 and a land area of just 21 square kilometres, is reliant on foreign aid.
The first deportation there was shrouded in secrecy and “exposes a disturbing lack of transparency and raises serious human rights concerns”, Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay said in a statement.
David Adeang with Anthony Albanese in December 2024.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“As the UN Human Rights Committee has made clear, outsourcing the management of asylum seekers and refugees does not absolve a State of its legal responsibilities,” she said.
Nauru also received a separate $20 million annual payment under the deal, of which $5.4 million will be used to operate the program, and the rest spent on immediate budget priorities including public health and school lunches.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has not commented on how many people have been transferred to Nauru, but he previously told the ABC about 20 visas had been issued.
Reuters