Advocates link processing announcement and Saturday’s pledge to allow asylum seekers free movement on island to Australian high court challenge

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A life in limbo: the refugees who fled torture only to end up trapped indefinitely on Manus Read more

The government of Nauru has announced that it will process all remaining refugee claims – about 600 in total – within the next week, declaring “detention has ended” on the Pacific island.

However the timing – just days before the high court of Australia hears a challenge to the legality of offshore detention – has raised suspicions among legal and refugee advocates.

The release from the country’s department of justice and border control follows Saturday’s announcement by the Nauruan government that it would allow asylum seekers to move freely about the island 24 hours a day.



Should all detainees be processed in the short time frame announced, it would mark a significant shift on policy from both governments, as previously many asylum seekers have waited for years in detention to have their claims determined.

“The start of detention-free processing is a landmark day for Nauru and represents an even more compassionate program, which was always the intention of our government,” said justice minister David Adeang.

Anthony Segaert (@anthonysegaert) #BREAKING: Nauru says Processing Centre will become "open centre", asylum seekers allowed to move freely on Island. pic.twitter.com/GssMnDyQrd

The announcement said the Australian government had promised to provide more assistance with policing and the two governments were working together to provide “suitable ongoing healthcare including overseas medical referral when required”.

In July Guardian Australia revealed all overseas medical transfers of Nauru detainees would go to a private hospital in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, after the Australian government stopped allowing them to seek medical care in Australia.

Monday’s announcement also promised an increase in the number of community liaison officers “to ensure that asylum seekers are integrated safely and cohesively”.

Repeated concerns have been raised over the conditions in which asylum seekers, including children and pregnant women, are held on Nauru.

Australia’s immigration minister, Peter Dutton, welcomed the announcements and reaffirmed the government’s support for regional reprocessing.”

We have supported the government of Nauru in making the open centre arrangements possible by funding service providers and sharing Australian expertise with Nauruan law enforcement agencies,” he said in a statement. “We will continue to support the government of Nauru, through funding of contracted service provider, to deliver settlement services to refugees in Nauru.”

It is unclear whether the Australian government requested the change of policy, but it comes just days before a full bench of the high court will hear a challenge to Australia’s powers to support offshore detention.



The lead case, brought on behalf of a Bangladeshi woman who is facing transfer back to Nauru with her 10-month-old baby, is linked to hundreds of similar cases around the country.

The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) launched the case in May, contending the Australian government had no legal power to fund and facilitate offshore detention.

A last-minute amendment to migration legislation was rushed through parliament in June, passed with the support of Labor, to potentially close the funding loophole, but left open a high court challenge to the constitutionality of the government’s role in offshore detention.

Mentally ill Iranian asylum seeker girl, 17, begs not to be sent back to Nauru Read more

The Coalition and Labor also joined forces to vote down Greens’ amendments to ensure mandatory reporting of abuse, access for the Human Rights Commission and the media, and a time limit of three months for detention.

The director of legal advocacy at the HRLC, Daniel Webb, questioned the announcement’s timing, and said while it was welcome, “letting people go for a walk does not resolve the fundamental problems caused by indefinitely warehousing them on a tiny remote island”.



“The men, women and children on Nauru need a real solution – settlement in a safe place where they can rebuild their lives,” Webb said in a statement. “Instead they’re being left languishing in an environment that is clearly unsafe for women and children.”

Pamela Curr, a refugee rights advocate from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said the move from heavy security to an open policy was probably related to the pending high court hearings.

“It’s taken two years and a high court case for the Australian government and the Nauruan government to come to an agreement about opening up the camp. We believe that the reason that this new rule has come into place is because they’re trying to change the facts before the high court case on Wednesday,” she said.

Curr said she had heard from staff that the refugee applications had been processed, but the decisions were yet to be conveyed to people because of the lack of accommodation on the island. She held “grave concerns” for people’s safety.

“They [Nauru] have got a failed legal system, a failed political system, half their opposition members are either in prison or not allowed to leave the country. Nauru’s a failed state and it’s not a safe environment for a group of vulnerable people,” she said.

Manus asylum seekers congratulate Malcolm Turnbull – and ask for freedom Read more

Lawyer David Manne, the executive director of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, said people on Nauru had been “incarcerated and slowly destroyed”, and he questioned whether the fast-tracked process would be fair.

“Whichever way one looks at it, this raises very serious concerns about why it has taken so long and whether the process will be fair,” Manne said. “This is not about mere legal technicalities; this is about people’s lives … If these are serious miscarriages of justice it could result in people being refused protection and sent back to the prospect of torture or death. That’s what’s at stake.”

Labor’s immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, said people’s protection claims should be assessed “as soon as humanly practicable”.

“The government must also ensure the incredibly serious allegations of rape and assault are urgently investigated,” he said on Monday. “While today’s announcement is welcome, Labor calls on the government to step up its efforts to find permanent resettlement solutions for the refugees on Nauru.”

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said there was no long-term solution for people to stay in Nauru.

“I’m very concerned about the safety of women and children,” she said. “If they’re going to be released from the detention centre how are we going to keep some of the men who have been preying on these individuals away from the women and children?”

Malcolm Turnbull, in one of his first interviews after becoming prime minister, said the plight of asylum seekers and refugees in Australian-run detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru was a “legitimate question” to which the government was paying “close attention”.



Asked about the more than 1,500 people in detention on Nauru and Manus with no clear prospect of resettlement, he told interviewer David Speers: “I have the same concerns about the situation of people on Manus and Nauru as you do, as all Australians do, as the minister, Mr Dutton, does.

“This is an area that clearly is one that is controversial, that is a challenging one, it is certainly one that close attention is being paid to … I thank you for raising it, it is legitimate to raise it … but we are not going to make policy changes on the run.”

Four refugees from detention on Nauru have been settled in Cambodia, at a cost of $55m, but most of those found to be refugees have moved elsewhere on the island.