Three people who had been held indefinitely in Australian immigration detention centres will be resettled in Nauru.
It follows a 2023 High Court ruling that indefinitely detaining people whose visas had been cancelled was unlawful. Approximately 150 people were released after the decision was handed down.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed the three are currently in immigration detention before they are taken to Nauru.
NZYQ
In November 2023, the High Court ruled that it is illegal to indefinitely detain a person in Australia.
The decision related to a case about a Rohingya refugee born in Myanmar, who was identified as ‘NZYQ’. He could not return to Myanmar due to fear of persecution.
NZYQ arrived in Australia in 2012. In 2015, he was charged and subsequently convicted on one count of child sexual abuse in Australia, and his visa was cancelled. NZYQ was released on parole in 2018 and returned to immigration detention.
A deal for him to be deported to another country was not secured, which meant Australia was authorised to detain NZYQ indefinitely.
NZYQ argued indefinite detention should be a matter for the courts, not the Government, to decide.
The High Court agreed, finding it is illegal to detain people indefinitely if their visas have been cancelled because they have been convicted of a crime, and have no prospect of going anywhere else.
NZYQ and around 150 others in similar circumstances were released.
Bridging visas
In response to the High Court’s decision, the Federal Government placed people released from immigration detention
on bridging visas.
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These bridging visas included electronic monitoring and overnight curfews.
In November, the High Court ruled the curfew and monitoring was “punitive and cannot be justified”.
Nauru
The Federal Government announced yesterday they had struck a deal with the Nauru Government to provide thirty year long “resettlement” visas to three people affected by the NZYQ decision.
In a statement, Burke said that “with valid visas to a third country these individuals now have a real prospect of removal from Australia... and have therefore been detained.”
Previous governments have signed agreements with Nauru to allow ‘offshore processing’ of refugees attempting to reach Australia.
Burke said the Government “anticipates” legal challenges to its deal with Nauru, but is “confident” in the legality of the “arrangement”.
The Government has not disclosed the cost of the resettlement deal.
In a press conference on Sunday, Burke said: “We don’t go through the details of the costs involved... yes, there’s a cost in reaching arrangements with third countries. There is also a cost in the high level of monitoring... that happens when these individuals are in the community here in Australia.”
Response
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the Coalition is “happy to have a look at the arrangements that the Government’s put in place”.
Greens immigration spokesperson Senator David Shoebridge said the announcement “entrenches a two-class legal system where you can be subject to arbitrary detention and forced to a country you have no connections to because of where you were born.”
