Around 50 people held a protest at Brisbane's immigration detention centre, BITA ( Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation), 11 June 2023. Photo: Ian Rintoul
A new deal paving the way for the potential resettlement of hundreds of non-citizens from Australia to Nauru is being criticised by refugee advocates.
It comes as the Australia government tries to pass new laws, essentially making it easier to deport people. Nauru is reportedly getting AU$400 million under the deal.
A group of about 300 non-citizens, known as the NZYQ cohort, will likely be the first to go. The cohort are named after a 2023 Australian court case that found the government had been holding them in indefinite immigration detention illegally.
The proposed law changes directly target the case and related legal action.
Australia's Asylum Seeker Resource Centre deputy chief executive Jana Favero told Pacific Waves the government had failed to be open and transparent about its agreement with Nauru.
The memorandum of understanding, announced 29 August, has still not been released.
"We're deeply concerned not only with what is happening [at the] fact that we could mass-deport people from Australia to Nauru, but also the amount of money that's being spent and the absolute secrecy that surrounds this," she said.
Favero said it was particularly concerning alongside the government's proposed migration law changes.
The bill, expected to pass this week under urgency, aims to speed up the deportation process by removing NZYQ cohort's rights to natural justice when they're deported to a country that Australia has a special arrangement with.
These countries, which included Nauru, had "third country reception arrangements".
Under the proposed law changes, when Australia deported someone to a "third country", they would not have to consider essential questions, such as whether that person would face death, torture or persecution in the new country, whether they would be left without critical medical care if they had a health condition, or whether they would be permanently separated from their family.
Favero, alongside other human rights advocates, said the proposed law changes could have wide-ranging impacts and lacked oversight.
"They're using language such as 'non-citizen removal pathway'. When we explored this with the Department of Home Affairs last year for a similar bill, they gave figures at that time that it would be about 80,000 people," she said.
"It sounds like what's happening in the US with ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] going into people's homes and deporting them is very similar, because the only reason people are being deported is because they weren't born here or aren't citizens, and that's deeply concerning."
Home affairs minister Tony Burke said in a statement those without a valid visa should leave the country. The statement also said Australia was supporting Nauru's economy.
Nauru's government said in a statement the agreement contained "undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence" of people who could not legally remain in Australia.
Favero was not reassured, particularly as the organisation was already in touch with people who'd been held at Australia's immigration detention centre on Nauru.
"People are reporting that when they're in detention, they are not having their human rights upheld. They're not finding out any information.
"We know that then when they're in the community [in Nauru] that they're often unwelcome.
"You have to remember that Nauru is the size of Melbourne Airport, and it has 11,000 people - it's a tight knit community, so when you're transferring or deporting any number of people there, of course, there would be dissatisfaction within that community."
Australia's Refugee Advice and Casework Service director Sarah Dale echoed Favero's sentiments.
"The government proposes to send even more people warehoused offshore in yet another secret backdoor deal," Dale said.
"Where does it end? The human cost, including that of family separation under this evolving offshore regime just continues to escalate."
Favero also rejected the "characterisation" of members of the NZYQ cohort as violent and undeserving of a life in Australia.
"There are thousands of people who are born in Australia every year who commit offences, but we're not talking about them - we're only talking about a small percentage of the population.
"We have many of them who are clients, some who have had low level offences, some who have no offences. So again, it's not about the offending. It's about deporting people from our community who weren't born here," she said.
