{"id":810315,"date":"2026-07-19T14:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T14:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/810315\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T14:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T14:21:22","slug":"i-eat-from-the-bin-asylum-seekers-sent-to-nauru-by-australia-say-they-are-going-hungry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/810315\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I eat from the bin’: Asylum seekers sent to Nauru by Australia say they are going hungry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asylum seekers sent to Nauru by the Australian government say they are going hungry, despite the Commonwealth spending nearly $900 million to fund offshore detention in the last financial year.<\/p>\n

The Asylum\u00a0Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) surveyed 78 asylum seekers on Nauru, with almost every one of them claiming they\u00a0could\u00a0not buy enough food with their fortnightly allowance of $260 and were regularly skipping meals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than three quarters of the asylum seekers surveyed\u00a0said they rarely had access to free, clean drinking water.<\/p>\n

While the Nauruan government ultimately determines the rate of payment based on the average local wage, Australia funds the program through its memorandum of understanding with Nauru.<\/p>\n

“The cost of living is really high [on Nauru],” George*, an asylum seeker who has been on Nauru for nearly two years waiting for his refugee status to be resolved, told the ABC.<\/p>\n

“Everybody is facing difficulties, and we have a food shortage. Fruit and vegetables and fresh meat are hard to find, and the price can be ridiculous.<\/p>\n

“I eat discarded food from the bin of local restaurants, even though it makes me sick.<\/p>\n

“Quite a few people are doing the same thing.”<\/p>\n

\"Refugees<\/p>\n

Most of the asylum seekers on Nauru are from Asian countries. (AAP: Department of Immigration)<\/p>\n

George, whose name has been changed, is one of more than 160 people who have been sent to Nauru by the government since 2023, when Australia’s offshore processing regime restarted.<\/p>\n

About 100 remain on the island, and hail mostly from China, Pakistan and Bangladesh. They do not have work rights in Nauru, and face their stipend being cancelled if caught working illegally.<\/p>\n

Nearly all those who spoke to the ASRC reported eating less often than they needed or wanted to.<\/p>\n

“I sometimes only have one meal a day,” George said.<\/p>\n

“I try to catch fish from the sea but have injured myself doing this.”\"Nibok<\/p>\n

Nauru is in the Pacific Ocean, about 3,000 kilometres north-east of Australia. (AP: Jason Oxenham)<\/p>\n

Nauru relies almost entirely on imported food, with most fresh produce sold for well above typical supermarket prices in Australia.<\/p>\n

ABC has not independently verified\u00a0the claims of asylum seekers going hungry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most journalists, including from the ABC, are restricted from entering the island nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Australia has ‘legal responsibility’, UN says<\/p>\n

Until recently, asylum seekers on Nauru received about $230 per fortnight to cover all their basic needs. In December 2025, the stipend was increased to $260 per fortnight.<\/p>\n

That equates to $18 a day.<\/p>\n

Iranians waiting years for asylum seeker status in Australia<\/a><\/p>\n

Iranian refugees in Australia welcome Iran’s footballers being granted asylum, but question why others remain stuck on a years-long waitlist for permanent residency.<\/p>\n

While the Nauruan government ultimately determines the rate of payment based on the average local wage, Australia funds the program through its memorandum of understanding with Nauru.<\/p>\n

In 2025, the government struck a new, non-public agreement with Nauru to facilitate the removal of individuals held in immigration detention in Australia, after the High Court’s NZYQ ruling, which found indefinite detention was illegal.<\/p>\n

In May, a United Nations report <\/a>found countries could not avoid legal responsibility for asylum seekers who arrived on their shores by “contracting out their obligations to other States”.<\/p>\n

“Rather than seeking to outsource responsibilities through arrangements that create human rights risks \u2026 states should prioritise rights-based, fair and sustainable asylum and migration systems that fully respect human rights and related procedural safeguards,” the report said.<\/p>\n

Of the 100 or so asylum seekers currently on Nauru, none will be able to come to Australia even if determined to be genuine refugees.<\/p>\n

Offshore processing ‘failed’\"An<\/p>\n

In the 2001 Tampa crisis, a Norwegian freighter rescued more than 400 asylum seekers from a sinking Indonesian fishing boat. (AAP)<\/p>\n

Since the 2001 Tampa crisis, Australia has instituted a policy of offshore detention, upheld by successive Coalition and Labor governments.<\/p>\n

The policy rationale is to deter asylum seekers from coming to Australia illegally by boat, by denying them resettlement pathways in Australia, and access to the legal system.<\/p>\n

ASRC deputy CEO Jana Favero described Australia’s policy of offshore processing as a “failure”.<\/p>\n

“In the last year alone, the Albanese government spent almost a billion dollars [on offshore processing]. And for what? A harmful and cruel policy where people don’t have enough food and are going hungry,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s outrageous and shameful.”<\/p>\n

The Home Affairs Department said the fortnightly payment was “designed to promote self-sufficiency” and was reviewed regularly “to ensure it remains fit for purpose”.<\/p>\n

“People transferred and accommodated under regional processing arrangements are treated with respect and dignity and in accordance with human rights standards,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The government said individuals on Nauru had access to health and welfare services, and did not pay for their accommodation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asylum seekers sent to Nauru by the Australian government say they are going hungry, despite the Commonwealth spending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[385234,33091,64,63,69,186960,385235,42691,44,6902,385236],"class_list":["post-810315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-asylum-seeker-resource-centre","tag-asylum-seekers","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-federal-government","tag-hungry","tag-jane-favero","tag-nauru","tag-news","tag-united-nations","tag-united-nations-report"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810315","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=810315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}