{"id":105781,"date":"2025-08-30T03:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T03:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/105781\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T03:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T03:10:09","slug":"australia-signs-400m-deportation-deal-with-nauru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/105781\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia signs $400m deportation deal with Nauru"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia has signed an agreement with Nauru to deport former detainees without a valid visa to the Pacific Islands nation in a move slammed by refugee advocates.<\/p>\n

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke quietly visited the tiny atoll nation on Friday where he met with President David Adeang, his cabinet and other parliamentarians before signing a memorandum of understanding.<\/p>\n

Australia will pay Nauru $408 million up front once the first people arrive and $70 million a year for the resettlement.<\/p>\n

\"Nauru<\/p>\n

Nauru President David Adeang and his cabinet received a visit from Tony Burke on Friday. (Dominic Giannini\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

It follows a fraught history as human rights organisations protest the deportation of people to the Micronesian island following a United Nations special rapporteur finding “systematic violations” of the International Convention Against Torture.<\/p>\n

The memorandum “contains undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, to be received in Nauru”, according to a statement from Mr Burke.<\/p>\n

Nauru will grant long-term visas to the cohort, opening the door to Australia circumventing a High Court ruling that hundreds of immigration detainees couldn’t be held in detention indefinitely if there was no prospect of their removal.<\/p>\n

The NZYQ cohort’s release in 2023 caused a political headache for the Labor government after scores were charged with further offences after being released into the community.<\/p>\n

Some had serious criminal convictions while others were in immigration detention for visa issues.<\/p>\n

\"Minister<\/p>\n

Tony Burke says undertakings for proper treatment are contained in the new agreement. (Mick Tsikas\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Mr Burke said the memorandum would target the NZYQ cohort.<\/p>\n

“Anyone who doesn’t have a valid visa should leave the country,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This is a fundamental element of a functioning visa system.”<\/p>\n

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said the deal opened the door to mass deportations without notice and could affect as many as 80,000 people.<\/p>\n

“These secret deals send one clear message – in Australia, some people will be punished simply because of where they were born,” deputy CEO Jana Favero said.<\/p>\n

“This deal is discriminatory, disgraceful and dangerous.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Critics say the deportation of former detainees is discriminatory. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n

Bethany Rose from the Visa Cancellations Working Group, a coalition of lawyers and academics, said the government was dismantling key legal and accountability protections.<\/p>\n

“Like anyone else, these people have served their time and restarted their lives in the communities, recovering after what may be years of indefinite detention,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We are talking about people’s lives.”<\/p>\n

Mr Burke introduced legislation into the lower house on Tuesday that would bolster the Commonwealth’s power to deport non-citizens to Nauru after a legal challenge halted three people being sent there in February.<\/p>\n

If passed, the laws will give the government power to circumvent natural justice principles – under which people have the right to a fair hearing – if there is a third country arrangement a person could be deported under.<\/p>\n

\"Asylum<\/p>\n

Jana Favero believes the government is dismantling key legal and accountability protections. (Mick Tsikas\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Mr Burke said procedural fairness was “a fundamental principle in many areas of decision-making” but accused non-citizens of using it to frustrate and delay their deportation.<\/p>\n

“These amendments do not remove procedural fairness from the processes that support decisions whether to cancel or refuse the grant of a visa, neither do they affect merits review,” he said when introducing the legislation on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“These amendments are largely directed to the final steps in the removal process, where non-citizens who are on a removal pathway have had all claims to remain in Australia considered and rejected.”<\/p>\n

The money comes on top of Australia providing Nauru $100 million in budget support and $40 million for policing in exchange for an effective veto of security and critical infrastructure agreements with third countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia has signed an agreement with Nauru to deport former detainees without a valid visa to the Pacific…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,76022,76025,76023,76024,42691,44,15387],"class_list":{"0":"post-105781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-david-adeang","11":"tag-deportation","12":"tag-immigration-detainees","13":"tag-memorandum-of-understanding","14":"tag-nauru","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-tony-burke"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}