Category Archives: Nauru

Home affairs may have misled Senate over Nauru contracts linked to man convicted over bribery

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Exclusive: Department claimed accommodation contracts with companies linked to Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani could not be cancelled – despite containing termination clauses

The department of home affairs appears to have misled the Senate over controversial contracts it signed with a company linked to a man under investigation for foreign bribery.

In a written response this month, the department told the Senate it had no power to cancel Nauru accommodation contracts with Radiance International Inc – linked to Mozammil (Mozu) Gulamabbas Bhojani, ultimately convicted of bribing politicians on the Pacific island state – but the department’s contracts explicitly allowed it to tear up the contracts for any reason.

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Bankman-Fried planned to buy Nauru and build apocalypse bunker – lawsuit

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Lawsuit filed against FTX founder, 31, includes memo that detailed plans to purchase Pacific island in case world came to an end

The disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, who founded the FTX exchange, had planned to purchase the small Pacific island nation of Nauru in case the world came to an end, according to a new lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed on Thursday by FTX against its 31-year-old founder and three other former executives, and seeking $1bn, included a memo created by Bankman-Fried’s younger brother Gabriel and an FTX Foundation executive. The memo detailed plans to buy Nauru.

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Future of deep-sea mining hangs in balance as opposition grows

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Ireland and Sweden join countries calling for moratorium on extraction of metals from seabed as UN-backed authority prepares for crucial talks

The list of countries calling for a pause on deep-sea mining continued to grow this week ahead of a key moment that mining companies hope will launch the fledgling industry, and its opponents hope could clip its wings, perhaps for good.

Ireland and Sweden became the latest developed economies to join critics, including scientists, environmental organisations and multinationals such as BMW, Volvo and Samsung. The carmakers have committed not to use minerals mined from the seabed in their electric vehicles.

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Australia to transport last asylum seekers off Nauru within weeks, refugees say

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Exclusive: Three asylum seekers and refugee advocates say government has flagged a 30 June goal

The Australian government is expected to move all remaining refugees and asylum seekers off Nauru by the end of the month, more than a decade after offshore processing restarted on the Pacific Island nation.

But Australia will retain an “enduring” capacity for offshore detention on the island indefinitely.

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Morrison government paid corrupt businessman millions for offshore processing on Nauru

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Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani was convicted of bribing two Nauruan officials with more than $120,000

The former Australian government continued to pay millions of taxpayer dollars to a businessman convicted of corruption to provide offshore processing services on Nauru, even after he had pleaded guilty to bribing Nauruan government officials.

In August 2020 Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani was convicted of paying more than $120,000 in bribes to two Nauru government officials, including an MP and government minister, for favourable deals on phosphate mining contracts for his Radiance International group of companies.

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Manus Island and Nauru: previously unseen testimony and AI imagery reveal ‘unimaginable’ part of Australian history

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The witness statements were collected during more than 300 hours of interviews with refugees as part of a now discontinued pro bono class action

Thirty-two witness statements from refugees detained by Australia offshore on Nauru and Manus Island have been published as part of an exhibition chronicling, in graphic detail, conditions inside Australia’s offshore immigration processing centres.

The statements were collected during more than 300 hours of interviews with women and men detained offshore as part of a now discontinued pro bono class action that challenged the detention of a number of people forcibly held in immigration detention.

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Almost 90% of children brought from Nauru suffered physical health problem – study

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Nearly 80% reported one or more mental health symptoms, research shows, with 45% reporting a suicide attempt ot self-harm

Nearly nine in 10 children brought from offshore processing on Nauru to Australia were suffering physical health conditions, including malnutrition and dental disease, while almost 80% reported one or more mental health symptoms, new research has revealed.

Nearly half – 45% – had reported suicidal ideation, a suicide attempt, or self-harm.

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John Howard’s government considered letting offshore detainees into Australia in 2002

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Cabinet papers 2002: records show there were growing concerns about management of asylum seekers in Australia’s offshore detention centres

The year 2002 started with traumatised asylum seekers sewing their lips together in protest at their incarceration, and ended with the federal government urgently planning a detention centre on Christmas Island.

John Howard and his cabinet were facing growing criticism over long-term detention as they increasingly enforced boat turnbacks and offshore detention in an effort to stop asylum seekers reaching the mainland.

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First refugees from Nauru to be resettled in New Zealand arrive nine years after deal offered

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Six men who had been held in Australia’s offshore processing facilities for more than eight years arrive in Auckland

The first six refugees to be resettled in New Zealand from Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru have landed in Auckland.

The flight follows a resettlement deal first offered by New Zealand nine years – and three prime ministers – ago when it proposed taking 150 refugees from Australia’s offshore centres every year.

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US prison operator begins $750,000-a-day contract for Nauru offshore regime

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Previously accused of ‘egregious’ security failures, MTC will be paid $47.3m to oversee detention of 111 refugees and asylum seekers for two months

The private prison operator now in charge of Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru will be paid more than three-quarters of a million dollars every day to provide “garrison and welfare services” for a little over 100 people.

The US-based Management and Training Corporation – a company previously accused in US courts of “gross negligence’’ and “egregious” security failures – has been awarded a contract for $47.3m covering just 62 days of work on the Pacific island.

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Australia to pay controversial US prisons operator $4.6m for 52 days of transition work on Nauru

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MTC, which has been accused of ‘gross negligence’ that allegedly led to gang rape, will be paid during same period as previous contractor Canstruct

The Australian government will pay $4.6m to a controversial US private prisons operator for 52 days of preparatory work ahead of its expected takeover of the offshore processing regime on Nauru, despite a range of serious allegations made against the company abroad.

The US-based Management and Training Corporation (MTC) has been accused in civil suits of “gross negligence” and “egregious” security failures that allegedly led to the gang-rape of a woman in detention, the murder of two retirees by escaped prisoners, and the months-long solitary confinement of a US citizen wrongfully held in immigration detention. It has also paid a multi-million dollar fine over a government bribery scandal.

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The ‘egregious’ history of likely new Nauru operator includes allegations of gang rape and murder in its US prisons

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A Guardian investigation reveals the firm has been accused of ‘gross negligence’ that allegedly led to gang rape, murder and mistaken solitary confinement in its US facilities

The US private prisons operator likely to take over Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru has previously been accused of “gross negligence” and “egregious” security failures that allegedly led to the gang-rape of a woman in detention, the murder of two retirees by escaped prisoners, and the months-long solitary confinement of a US citizen wrongfully held in immigration detention.

The Department of Home Affairs is finalising negotiations with the US-based Management and Training Corporation, which the department has announced as its preferred tenderer to provide “facilities, garrison, transferee arrivals and reception services” for Australia’s offshore regime on Nauru from next month. No contracts have yet been signed.

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Canstruct loses lucrative Nauru offshore processing contract to US prisons operator with controversial record

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Management and Training Corporation is set to take over running Australia’s immigration regime on the island

Canstruct has lost the lucrative contract to run Australia’s offshore immigration regime on Nauru with the Brisbane firm to be replaced by a US-headquartered private prisons operator that has a controversial past.

Sources have told the Guardian that Canstruct’s current contract, set to end on 30 September, will not be renewed and from 1 October “facilities, garrison, transferee arrivals and reception services” will be run by Management and Training Corporation (MTC) Australia.

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Coalition used private contractor to collect intelligence on Nauru asylum seekers

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Exclusive: asylum seekers in the offshore detention centre who had contact with Australian journalists, lawyers and advocates were closely watched, documents reveal

The Australian government used private security contractors to collect intelligence on asylum seekers on Nauru, singling out those who were speaking to journalists, lawyers and refugee advocates, internal documents from 2016 reveal.

Intelligence officers working for Wilson Security compiled fortnightly reports about asylum seekers “of interest”, including individuals flagged as having “links with [Australian] media”, “contact with lawyers in Australia” or “contacts with Australian advocates”.

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CSIRO joins deep-sea mining project in Pacific as islands call for industry halt

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Agency to lead consortium in scheme targeting battery materials while conservationists say Australia on ‘wrong side of debate’

Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, has agreed to work with a controversial deep-sea mining project in the Pacific as a fourth island nation joins a call for a moratorium on the industry.

CSIRO will lead a consortium of scientists from Australia and New Zealand to help the Metals Company (TMC) develop an environmental management plan for its project, which is backed by the Nauru government.

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Seabed regulator accused of deciding deep sea’s future ‘behind closed doors’

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The ISA, obliged to frame industry rules by 2023, drops reporting service and is accused of lacking transparency in plans for mining
• Podcast: The race to mine the deep sea

The UN-affiliated organisation that oversees deep-sea mining, a controversial new industry, has been accused of failings of transparency after an independent body responsible for reporting on negotiations was kicked out.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is meeting this week at its council headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica, to develop regulations for the fledgling industry. But it emerged this week that Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB), a division of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), which has covered previous ISA negotiations, had not had its contract renewed.

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Coalition urged to terminate Canstruct contract to end financial ‘black hole’ on Nauru

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There is little sense keeping refugees on island at great expense following New Zealand resettlement deal, human rights groups say

The government must end the “moral and financial black hole” on Nauru by ceasing its contract with Canstruct and returning those on Nauru to Australia in the wake of the New Zealand refugee resettlement deal, human rights groups say.

Asked on Friday whether it would end the Canstruct contract for “garrison and welfare services”, the government declined to answer.

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Australia agrees 450 refugees can be resettled in New Zealand, nine years after deal first offered

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Under the deal 150 refugees a year held on Nauru, or who have come to Australia temporarily, will be eligible for resettlement

Up to 450 refugees from Australia’s regional processing centres will be resettled in New Zealand over the next three years, after the Coalition belatedly took up a long-standing agreement struck more than nine years ago.

Up to 150 refugees a year will be able to go to New Zealand, under the deal announced by Australia’s home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, and the New Zealand immigration minister, Kris Faafoi, on Thursday.

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Parent company of Nauru offshore operator fails to file reports in apparent breach of corporations law

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Asic registers ‘report of misconduct’ against Canstruct owner Rard No 3 for failing to lodge financial reports with the corporate regulator

The parent company of the firm that runs Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru has failed to lodge financial reports with the corporate regulator on time, in an apparent breach of corporations law.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has confirmed that it has registered a “report of misconduct” against Rard No 3, the Brisbane-based company that wholly owns Canstruct International, following the Guardian’s inquiries. The potential penalty for filing a report late is a fine of more than $25,000.

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Cost of Australia holding each refugee on Nauru balloons to $4.3m a year

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Exclusive: Taxpayer cost of offshore processing regime revealed as government remains silent on where $400m went

The cost to Australian taxpayers to hold a single refugee on Nauru has escalated tenfold to more than $350,000 every month – or $4.3m a year – as the government refuses to reveal where nearly $400m spent on offshore processing on the island has gone.

Australia currently pays about $40m a month to run its offshore processing regime on Nauru, an amount almost identical to 2016 when there were nearly 10 times as many people held on the island.

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