A translation of the Nauruan president’s remarks will stay suppressed for a decade – but secrecy in Australia’s offshore policy is nothing new

From Scott Morrison’s ‘on-water matters’ to the Albanese government’s MOU with Nauru, successive governments’ attitude to legitimate scrutiny has been one of hostility

Offshore, secrecy dominates. But it doesn’t stop at the water’s edge.

In February, Australia brokered a new offshore arrangement with Nauru, striking a deal to send members of the so-called NZYQ cohort – non-citizens with criminal histories – to the Pacific island. Australia would give Nauru more than $400m in exchange.

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Albanese government deports two more men to Nauru in secret, infuriating human rights advocates

Exclusive: Sources say a Sudanese national and another man were chartered to the former regional processing centre last week, joining one other person

Another two men from the NZYQ-affected cohort have been deported to Nauru in a process human rights advocates say is shrouded in secrecy.

Sources told Guardian Australia a Sudanese national, who was detained in the Yongah Hill centre just outside of Perth, and another man held in a different centre were chartered to Nauru last week.

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First person arrives on Nauru triggering Australia’s $2.5bn deal with island nation

Deal between federal government and Nauru expected to last 30 years and apply to around 350 people released under high court’s NZYQ ruling

Australia has commenced its $2.5bn deal with Nauru to offload more than 350 people from the NZYQ cohort after the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, confirmed the first arrival had landed on the tiny Pacific island last week.

Burke said Nauruan authorities had confirmed the arrival on Friday, as reported by the ABC, triggering the first yearly instalment of $408m.

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People banished to Nauru by Australia face hostile reception as $2.5bn cost of deal revealed

Home affairs department reveals just-signed transfer deal, worth $408m upfront to Nauru, forecast to cost Australia $2.5bn over 30 years

The group of noncitizens set to be banished by Australia to Nauru for 30 years face a potentially hostile reception because they have been described as “violent” and “appalling” by the Australian government.

The forcible transfer of the so-called NZYQ group – and potentially thousands more under legislation currently before parliament – to the tiny island is being quietly resented by Nauruans, sources on the island have told Guardian Australia.

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Australian government criticised over ‘disgraceful’ $400m deal to deport foreign-born former detainees to Nauru

An agreement relating to the NZYQ cohort, who previously faced indefinite immigration detention, was signed by home affairs minister Tony Burke on Friday

Human rights lawyers, refugee advocates and the Greens have accused the Albanese government of striking a “discriminatory, disgraceful and dangerous” deal to deport hundreds of foreign-born former detainees at a cost of almost half a billion dollars.

On Friday Australia and Nauru signed a memorandum of understanding allowing the government to deport about 280 members of the NZYQ cohort, a group of noncitizens living in the Australian community whose visas were cancelled on character grounds.

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Eleventh-hour high court bid to stop Australia’s secretive deal to resettle NZYQ cohort in Nauru

Proceedings filed Friday for man scheduled to be deported Monday as Human Rights Law Centre makes case for ‘dangerous precedent’

Australia’s secretive deal to deport people among the NZYQ cohort to Nauru has been challenged in the high court in a move that could block the first removal from the country.

Legal proceedings filed Friday for a man scheduled to be deported to Nauru on Monday argued that the decision to cancel the man’s protection visa was unlawful and that he should be allowed to stay in Australia while a review of his visa continued.

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Convicted murderer among three members of NZYQ cohort to be resettled in Nauru under deal struck by Labor

Three non-citizens with criminal histories taken into immigration detention in preparation for removal from Australia, home affairs minister says

Three members of the NZYQ cohort of non-citizens, including a convicted murderer, will be resettled in Nauru after the Albanese government struck a deal with the tiny Pacific nation for an undisclosed sum.

The trio were placed into immigration detention in preparation for their removal from Australia after being granted 30-year resettlement visas by Nauru on Saturday, the home affairs minster, Tony Burke, announced on Sunday.

The NZYQ cohort includes non-citizens released into the community in Australia as a result of a landmark 2023 high court decision, where the court ruled in favour of “NZYQ”, a stateless Rohingya man, who faced the prospect of detention for life because no country had agreed to resettle him, due to a criminal conviction for raping a 10-year-old in Australia.

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‘I felt less human, not human at all’: Australia faces moral crossroads over Nauru

Who is accountable for what happens in an offshore processing centre? It’s remarkable this is still a question in Australia

Aarash lost his youth to offshore processing. Sixteen when he was sent to Nauru, he says he cannot remember a single birthday in more than a decade.

“When I see younger ones that age, having fun, playing, going to school, it reminds me of everything I lost,” he says. “I felt less human, not human at all.”

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Number of asylum seekers on Nauru jumps as Australia transfers 37 people who arrived by boat

Deterrence policy against asylum seeker boats is under strain, with three vessels arriving in a week in May

The number of asylum seekers on Nauru appears to have topped 100, with a further two groups of 37 people sent to the Pacific Island.

The people, classified as “unauthorised maritime arrivals”, include 33 Bangladeshis who were found on Christmas Island on 9 May, one of who is a woman. Their boat was destroyed by bad weather.

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Australia paid companies linked to suspected drug and weapons smuggling to run offshore detention, review finds

Home affairs minister Clare O’Neil says scathing report shows offshore processing ‘used as a slush fund by suspected criminals’

Contractors suspected of drug smuggling and weapons trafficking were handed multimillion dollar contracts due to a lack of due diligence in the administration of Australia’s offshore detention regime, a scathing report has found.

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, has seized on the findings of the inquiry to claim that the now opposition leader, Peter Dutton, oversaw “an offshore processing regime being used as a slush fund by suspected criminals” when he was the responsible minister.

A company whose owners were suspected, through the ownership of another company, of seeking to circumvent US sanctions against Iran, and with extensive suspicious money movements suggesting money laundering, bribery and other criminal activity;

Companies under investigation by the Australian federal police (AFP)

A company whose chief executive was being investigated for possible drugs and arms smuggling into Australia, “although, at the time it would have been unrealistic to have expected those responsible for contract and procurement to be aware of this”; and

An enterprise suspected of corruption.

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Child among asylum seekers returned to country of origin after being sent from Australia to Nauru

Home affairs department confirms eight of the 11 people flown to island nation in September have since returned home

Eight of the 11 asylum seekers taken to Nauru in September – including a woman and child – have returned to their country of origin.

In October Guardian Australia revealed the transfer, the first by Australia to the regional processing centre in nine years, which occurred just months after the last asylum seekers were removed from the Pacific nation.

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Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favour of China

Nauru become first ally to switch allegiances to Beijing after weekend’s presidential elections in Taiwan

Nauru has switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China less than 48 hours after Taiwan’s presidential election.

In a statement, the government of the tiny island country in Micronesia, north-east of Australia, said it had decided to recognise the People’s Republic of China and was seeking the resumption of full diplomatic relations “in the best interests of the Republic and people of Nauru”.

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Australia’s ‘inhuman’ offshore detention regime denounced by global human rights organisation

Report by Australian chapter of advocacy group says policy is ‘embarrassing’ and at odds with country’s commitment to Refugee Convention

Australia’s reputation on human rights took a hit on the world stage last year, Human Rights Watch’s latest annual report has said, after the Labor government returned asylum seekers to offshore immigration on Nauru less than three months after the last detainees were removed.

Despite labelling Australia as a “vibrant democracy” that “mostly protects the civil and political rights of its citizens”, the Australian chapter of the global human rights advocacy group has levelled heavy criticism at the federal government’s decade-long “inhuman” offshore detention regime, with Australian director Daniela Gavshon describing the policy as “embarrassing” for the country.

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Pacific Islands Forum: what is it and why does it matter?

Climate change and rising strategic competition among issues facing leaders at region’s most important political gathering

The leaders of Pacific nations will gather in the Cook Islands this week for the most closely watched meeting on the regional calendar. The Pacific Islands Forum, or Pif, is the main political decision making body for the region. This year discussions are likely to be dominated by climate change ahead of COP28, and will also address how to manage increasing geostrategic competition – including the rise of China.

On the eve of the summit, officials confirmed the leaders of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Zealand would not attend – weakening the prospects of progress on some issues.

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Labor accused of ‘outrageous secrecy’ as border force confirms 11 asylum seekers sent to Nauru

Officials refuse to answer questions at Senate estimates about the first transfer to immigration detention on the island in nine years

The Australian Border Force has confirmed it sent 11 asylum seekers to Nauru in September, the first transfer to immigration detention on the Pacific nation in nine years.

The evidence to Senate estimates on Monday from the head of operation sovereign borders (OSB) confirms a report in Guardian Australia revealing the Albanese government sent asylum seekers to Nauru just months after the last people were removed from detention on the island.

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PNG threatens to send refugees back to Australia unless it keeps funding humanitarian program

Exclusive: Papua New Guinea official accuses Australia of abandoning 70 men but government maintains it has no responsibility for them

Refugees exiled to Papua New Guinea a decade ago will be sent back to Australia if the Australian government fails to continue funding PNG’s humanitarian program, Port Moresby’s most senior migration official has warned.

PNG’s chief migration officer, Stanis Hulahau, said the refugees had been abandoned by Australia and the PNG businesses that had been housing and caring for the men were owed tens of millions of dollars.

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Asylum seekers sent to Nauru by Australian government only months after last detainees were removed

Exclusive: Guardian Australia understands the group – believed to be 11 people – was intercepted in September and taken to the Pacific nation

A group of asylum seekers who attempted to arrive in Australia by boat has been sent to Nauru just months after the last people were removed from immigration detention on the Pacific nation.

Guardian Australia understands that a group of asylum seekers was intercepted in September and taken to Nauru. Staff of International Health and Medical Services have been asked to work on Nauru to provide health services to the cohort, believed to number 11.

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Queensland company accused of bribery in Nauru says charge should be dropped as fair trial ‘impossible’

Exclusive: Lawyers for Getax Australia say ‘unjustified and inexplicable delays’ from the prosecution mean evidence has been lost and essential witnesses have died

A Queensland exporter accused of systematically bribing Nauruan politicians for favourable mining deals on the Pacific island has applied to have a charge of foreign bribery permanently stayed, arguing “a fair trial is impossible” and accusing Australian authorities of mishandling the investigation and losing key evidence.

Court documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that lawyers for Getax Australia Pty Ltd have applied for a permanent stay. If successful, it would effectively permanently halt the company’s prosecution.

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Dutton wasn’t told details of Bhojani bribery investigation as it was not ‘custom and practice’, AFP tells estimates

Federal police say they did not tell then home affairs minister name of man who was subject of Nauru investigation or that department had contracts with him

Australian federal police investigating an Australian citizen for allegedly bribing politicians on Nauru have told a Senate estimates hearing they did not tell the then home affairs minister his department was paying the man’s company multimillion-dollar accommodation contracts at the same time, because it was not “custom and practice”.

The AFP says it knew a company linked to Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani had multiple ongoing contracts with the home affairs department when it briefed the then home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, on its Nauru foreign bribery investigation on 12 July 2018.

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Labor launches inquiry into home affairs procurement after ‘serious issues’ with Nauru contracts

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, says revelations about contracts with company linked to a foreign bribery case ‘merit detailed and thorough examination’

Labor has announced an independent review of the management of regional processing procurement by the Department of Home Affairs after revelations it granted contracts to a company linked to the subject of a bribery investigation.

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, announced the inquiry citing “serious issues” with the governance of offshore processing contracts which she said “merit detailed and thorough examination”.

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