NAURU ARRANGEMENT

This explainer provides a brief history of the Australian government’s regional processing arrangement with Nauru, as well as the critique and legal challenges that the government has faced because of the Nauru arrangement.

The Republic of Nauru is an island state in the South Pacific with a surface area of 21 square kilometres and a population of approximately 13,000 people. Similar to Papua New Guinea, it cooperates with Australia to process the claims of asylum seekers intercepted at sea by the Australian Government.

Background to regional processing in Nauru

The Australian and Nauruan governments first entered into an agreement for the establishment of an immigration detention centre following the Tampa Affair in 2001. Under a set of policy measures known as the Pacific Solution, between 2001 and 2008, asylum seekers intercepted at sea by the Australian navy were either towed back to Indonesia or taken to the detention centres on Nauru or on Christmas Island.

In 2007, the Nauru detention centre was closed by the newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the last detainees left by December 2007. However, in August 2012, the Labor Government under Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the resumption of the transfer of asylum seekers intercepted at sea to Nauru and Manus Island. Australia signed an initial Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Nauru on 29 August 2012. This MOU was renegotiated in August 2013, and again in 2021.

The current MOU entered into force in October 2021 and sets out the terms of the current arrangement. As per the MOU, Nauru has agreed to host regional processing centres (RPCs) for the purpose of processing protection claims of asylum seekers transferred to the centres by the Australian Government. In 2023, it was reported that the centres on Nauru cost approximately $485 million to run for the year, and going forwards, even if the centre was empty, it would cost approximately $350 million per year to maintain.

Over 2018, significant numbers of children and families were evacuated from Nauru for urgent medical care, and the number of individuals remaining in Nauru significantly dwindled over the following years. In June 2023, the Nauru RPCs were ostensibly closed as the remaining refugees from the persons transferred in 2013 and 2014 had all been resettled or temporarily evacuated to Australia. The Australian government made it clear that it would retain an enduring capacity for regional processing in Nauru. In September 2023, new illegal maritime arrivals were reportedly transferred to Nauru. As at 31 August 2024, there were 94 people transferred by Australia in Nauru.

Solutions for refugees

The Australian government has maintained the policy that illegal maritime arrivals (IMAs) will never settle permanently in Australia. Individuals who are granted refugee visas in Nauru are therefore limited in the potential for long-term solutions.

In November 2016 it was announced that a deal had been made with the United States to resettle people in detention on Nauru and Manus Island. As at 31 August 2024, 413 people have been resettled to the United States from Nauru.

In March 2022, the Australian government announced another deal to resettle refugees from Nauru, including those who had been temporarily evacuated to Australia, to New Zealand. As at 31 August 2024, 187 individuals (15 from Nauru and 172 from Australia) have been resettled to New Zealand.

Conditions and adherence to international law

The conditions and treatment of refugees at the Nauru RPCs have been the subject of significant concern and legal challenges, both nationally and internationally. Critics have highlighted the Nauru arrangement’s violations of international human rights law and international refugee law obligations. Since 2012, at least 14 people have died in offshore detention (in both PNG and Nauru).

In October 2013, the UNHCR visited Nauru and reported that Nauru does not ‘provide safe and humane conditions for treatment in detention’. In May 2016, UNHCR further called for the immediate removal of refugees and asylum seekers to humane conditions, citing the ‘immense damage’ caused by detention and offshore processing. This was in response to the death of Omid Masoumali, who set himself alight during a UNHCR monitoring visit.

In February 2015, the Australian Human Rights Commission released The Forgotten Children report, recommending that all children and their families be released from detention. In March 2015, the government-initiated Moss Review responded to allegations of sexual and physical assault of detainees and made 19 recommendations to improve conditions at the centre.

On 10 August 2016, the Guardian published the Nauru Files, a cache of 2116 leaked incident reports written by staff in Nauru RPC (for more information, see our Explainer on the Nauru Files). In 2016, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also published extensive reporting on the appalling conditions and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and refugees in Nauru.

In 2018, advocates warned the public about the deteriorating mental health of asylum seekers and refugees in Nauru. In particular, the welfare of children became a national debate with the #KidsOffNauru campaign. In February 2019, the last children were resettled from Nauru.

In 2020, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court determined that the ‘conditions of detention [in Nauru and PNG] appear to have constituted cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment… and the gravity of the alleged conduct thus appears to have been such that it was in violation of fundamental rules of international law’.

On 9 January 2025, the UN Human Rights Committee issued a decision finding that Australia had breached the human rights of asylum seekers transferred to Nauru under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The decision comes after two separate complaints were submitted in 2016 by asylum seekers transferred to Nauru. The Committee found that Australia had violated the asylum seekers’ right to freedom from arbitrary detention and their right to challenge the legality of their detention in court. The Committee rejected Australia’s argument that the alleged violations occurred outside its jurisdiction, finding that the Australian government had significant control and influence over the regional processing facility in Nauru.

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Last updated 31 January 2025