Australia signs deal to send immigrants to Nauru

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 16:22:00 +0000

An aerial view shows the Republic of Nauru. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Australia has announced an agreement with the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru, enabling it to send hundreds of immigrants to the barren island.

Also Read | Nauru agrees to give Australia a veto right over a range of pacts with third nations including China

The deal affects more than 220 immigrants in Australia, including some convicted of serious crimes.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke signed the memorandum of understanding on a visit to Nauru, the government said in a statement Friday.

“It contains undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, to be received in Nauru,” it said.

“Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru’s long-term economic resilience.”

Canberra did not provide financial details.

The Sydney Morning Herald said, however, that Australia would pay Nauru Aus $408 million ($267 million) and about Aus$70 million a year thereafter under the deal.

“Anyone who doesn’t have a valid visa should leave the country,” Burke said in a statement.

“This is a fundamental element of a functioning visa system.”

Australia’s government has been searching for a way to deal with immigrants who have no other country to go to when their visas are cancelled.

The High Court ruled in 2023 that indefinite detention was “unlawful” if deportation was not an option, leading to the release of 220 people.

The number of immigrants in that situation now numbers more than 350, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

In February, Australia paid an undisclosed sum for Nauru to accept three immigrants convicted of violent offences, though legal challenges have reportedly stalled their transfer.

Last year, Australia and Nauru signed an agreement spanning maritime security, defence and policing.

Nauru, population 12,500, is one of the world’s smallest countries with a mainland measuring just 20 square kilometres (7.7 square miles).

It is considered especially vulnerable to climate change and has high rates of unemployment and health issues, a recent World Bank assessment said.

Unusually pure phosphate deposits — a key ingredient in fertiliser — once made Nauru one of the wealthiest places, per capita, on the planet.

But those supplies have long dried up, and researchers today estimate 80 percent of Nauru has been rendered uninhabitable by mining.

Published – August 30, 2025 09:52 pm IST

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Nauru agrees to give Australia a veto right over a range of pacts with third nations including China

admin — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 18:54:03 +0000

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese looks on as Nauru President David Adeang, right, signs the Australian Parliament House guest book in Canberra, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Australia announced a multimillion-dollar agreement with Nauru on Monday (December 9, 2024) that gives Australia a veto right over a range of pacts the tiny Pacific atoll might want to enter with third countries including China.

Australia offered 140 million Australian dollars ($89 million) over five years to the remote nation’s population of 12,000 under the treaty to be implemented next year, including AU$40 million ($26 million) to enhance policing and security.

“Recognizing the security of one of us affects the security of both of us, the treaty provides that Nauru and Australia will jointly agree to any engagement by other countries in Nauru’s security, banking and telecommunications sectors,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a joint statement with Nauru President David Adeang at Australia’s Parliament House.

Adeang said Nauru’s partnership with Australia, its former colonial master, is “vital” to his country.

The pact has some similarities to a deal a struck in May with Tuvalu, another tiny Pacific island nation with a similar-size population as Nauru, which also gave Australia a veto power over third-country deals.

The Tuvalu deal followed a security agreement struck between China and the Solomon Islands in 2022 that has raised concerns of a Chinese naval base being established in the South Pacific.

Meg Keen, director of the Pacific Island Program at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank on international policy, said Nauru had sacrificed its ability to strike security, banking and infrastructure deals with China and other third parties in return for a big increase in Australian funding.

“It is a move by Australia to limit Chinese reach and influence in the region,” Keen said in an email.

“The treaty allows Australia to strengthen regional ties and cement its leading role as the development and security partner of choice,” she said.

A key part of the deal is that Nauru will retain an Australian bank.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia will open a branch in Nauru next year after Australia’s Bendigo Bank withdraws from the country.

“This treaty strengthens our own economy, enhances also our mutual security and addresses critical challenges like debanking and ensuring inclusive growth and resilience for our own people,” Adeang said.

Published – December 10, 2024 12:24 am IST

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Australia signs deal to send immigrants to Nauru

Nauru agrees to give Australia a veto right over a range of pacts with third nations including China