Nauru President David Adeang defends deal on NZYQ detainees

Nauru President David Adeang has defended his cash-strapped government’s decision to resettle criminal detainees from Australia.

Nauru President David Ranibok Adeang during an address to the United Nations in New York. Picture: AFP

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Nauru President David Adeang has defended his cash-strapped government’s decision to resettle criminal detainees from Australia in a video address that has sparked anger in the Pacific Island nation.

In an interview conducted mostly in Nauruan by a presidential aide and uploaded to the government Facebook page late on Monday, Mr Adeang confirmed the first three people to be settled under the deal – described by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke as “violent offenders” – would be granted 30-year visas to live and work freely on the tiny atoll, though the aim was for them eventually to return to their home countries.

Mr Adeang said all those resettled under the deal would be expected to contribute to Nauruan society and would “be subject to the laws of Nauru”.

But, he added, despite their pasts they were entitled to a “normal and peaceful life in Nauru”

“Maybe they have less than 100 per cent pristine backgrounds … but may we all get along just fine,” he said in a mix of English and Nauruan.

Mr Adeang said the agreement struck with the Australian government was simply a continuation of the Nauru tradition of providing refuge, though stressed the people Nauru would be resettling were “non-citizens” and not refugees.

The 30-year visa mirrored the policy of Nauru’s regional processing centre and that the country had the capacity to successfully integrate the “non-citizens”, just as it had previously done with individuals of diverse character, including those with criminal histories.

Still, he said: “The long-term goal remains the eventual repatriation of these individuals to their home countries, should circumstances allow.”

Mr Adeang assured Nauruans there would be safety arrangements in place for the three men’s release and that they would “also be subject to the laws of Nauru”.

The comments drew mixed ­reactions on social media, with many expressing concern about the potential danger posed by the men. “You’ve turned our sovereign country into a prison paradise,” wrote one commentator, Jairon Syndeh Adkins.

“Nauru will not only receive refugees now, we will be living among criminals that Australian government doesn’t want, nor their origin country.

“What if they’re bored and want to kill people for fun? They will be our first-class VIP criminals living among us free.”

Another urged the government to upgrade its arsenal to “order more powerful weapons” to protect Nauruan safety.

Mr Burke said on Sunday that the Nauru government had chosen the first three men, part of an opaque deal in which Australia has agreed to pay the impoverished nation an undisclosed sum for resettling asylum-seekers it does not want.

The Australian government was forced to release as many as 200 asylum-seekers into the community in 2023 after the High Court ruled it unlawful to keep in indefinite detention those who could not be deported to their home countries but were deemed too high a risk to be released into the community.

The High Court test case was brought by a Rohingya Muslim, identified in court as NZYQ, who was brought to Australia in a people-smuggler’s boat in 2012 and raped a child soon after being released into the community.

He served a prison sentence and was then transferred into indefinite immigration detention until he won his court case.

Ian Rintoul, the Sydney-based director of the Australian advocacy group Refugee Action ­Coalition, said the first man, an Iraqi immigrant, was due to be sent next Monday.

“He is adamant that he can’t go and has requested any help he can get,” Mr Rintoul said.

“It’s going to come down to whatever can be done legally, whether we can seek an injunction against his removal.”

Australia pays Nauru, a nation of 13,000 people just 21sq km in size, to house asylum-seekers who attempt to reach Australia by boat.

Additional reporting: agencies