{"id":186432,"date":"2025-08-30T04:52:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T04:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/186432\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T04:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T04:52:12","slug":"federal-government-inks-400m-deal-with-nauru-to-resettle-people-who-have-no-legal-right-to-stay-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/186432\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal government inks $400m deal with Nauru to resettle people who have ‘no legal right to stay in Australia’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Albanese government will pay Nauru more than $408 million to resettle hundreds of non-citizens caught up in the High Court’s NZYQ decision<\/a> after the home affairs minister signed a deal in an unannounced visit to the Micronesian nation on Friday.<\/p>\n

UN urges Australia to halt deporting man to Nauru<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia is seeking to deport three people to the tiny Pacific nation in exchange for an undisclosed payment but their removal has been stalled.<\/p>\n

In signing a memorandum of understanding with Nauru President David Adeang, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke also committed the Australian government to pay almost $70 million per year to cover the ongoing resettlement costs for the group of more than 350 people.<\/p>\n

The cohort had been held in indefinite immigration detention<\/a> in Australia before the High Court found the practice to be illegal for those with no reasonable prospects of deportation in a landmark 2023 ruling.<\/p>\n

Many members of the group have a history of violent offending, with a number reoffending since being released.<\/p>\n

\"Adeang<\/p>\n

Nauruan President David Adeang and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)<\/p>\n

A statement published on the home affairs website said the deal would allow for “the continued management of the NZYQ cohort”.<\/p>\n

“It [the MOU] 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,” the statement read.<\/p>\n

“Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru’s long-term economic resilience.”<\/p>\n

The statement, which wasn’t sent directly to journalists as per standard practice, said Mr Adeang and Mr Burke discussed Nauru granting further long-term visas to people who no longer had a legal right to remain in Australia.<\/p>\n

Mr Burke’s office has been approached for further comment, but referred the ABC back to the statement where Mr Burke was quoted as saying, “Anyone who doesn’t have a valid visa should leave the country”.<\/p>\n

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

Lawyers and refugee organisations have raised concerns about the deal, including the lack of transparency.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jana Favero says the deal is “discriminatory, disgraceful and dangerous”. (ABC News: Erin Handley)<\/p>\n

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre deputy chief executive Jana Favero said the deal would build on the $13 billion of Australian taxpayers’ money “thrown down the toilet in outrageous deals”.<\/p>\n

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

“The Albanese government has launched yet another attack on migrants and refugees. An attack that will result in the most significant of outcomes \u2014 mass deportation.”<\/p>\n

The Refugee Advice and Casework Service director and principal solicitor Sarah Dale described the deal as “extraordinarily alarming”.<\/p>\n

“Earlier this year, it was found by the UN that the Australian government could not outsource their obligations to Nauru,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s extraordinarily alarming, some months later, the government proposes to send even more people warehoused offshore in yet another secret backdoor deal.”<\/p>\n

Deal follows move to bolster deportation powers<\/p>\n

The signing of the memorandum of understanding follows the government’s introduction of new legislation in parliament this week, which would remove the obligation to provide procedural fairness to non-citizens facing removal to a third country.<\/p>\n

\"Ship<\/p>\n

The UN has weighed in on the government’s attempt to deport three men to Nauru.\u00a0 (Kathy McLeish)<\/p>\n

Under the changes introduced to parliament on Tuesday, natural justice \u2014 the requirement to provide a fair hearing to people subject to a decision \u2014 would not apply where “third country reception arrangements” are in place.<\/p>\n

Introducing the legislation on Tuesday, Mr Burke told the House of Representatives non-citizens were using procedural fairness to frustrate their removal at a cost to the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n

“These provisions are primarily directed to non-citizens who have exhausted all legitimate avenues to remain in Australia and for whom removal is the only remaining outcome under Australian law,” he said.<\/p>\n

“All individuals affected by these decisions will have already had full access to visa application processes, merits review, judicial review and ministerial intervention opportunities.”<\/p>\n

Refugee organisations have warned that the changes were expected to be pushed through parliament this week, with the Coalition set to support the bill.<\/p>\n

The government is currently working to resettle three members of the NZYQ cohort in Nauru<\/a>, but that process has been stalled amid ongoing legal challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Albanese government will pay Nauru more than $408 million to resettle hundreds of non-citizens caught up in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":186433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[97226,4740,50492,104480,13045,16665,104481,104479,50,21078,104482,46181],"class_list":{"0":"post-186432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-albanese-government","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australian-government","11":"tag-david-adeang","12":"tag-deportation","13":"tag-high-court","14":"tag-jana-favero","15":"tag-nauru","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nzyq","18":"tag-sarah-dale","19":"tag-tony-burke"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115115926721924221","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}