​Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called on the prime minister to launch an independent investigation into the death of a Bangladeshi asylum seeker on Nauru.

Senator Hanson-Young says there were unconfirmed reports from people on the island the 26-year-old man had overdosed on medication.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young: "We must know what happened, why he died and why he wasn't airlifted off Nauru in a time that would have saved his life." Credit:Andrew Meares

"We must know what happened, why he died and why he wasn't airlifted off Nauru in a time that would have saved his life," she said in Brisbane on Thursday.

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AAP