Labor cuts deal with Nauru over convicted criminals

The small Pacific nation of Nauru will make a major move over criminals who have been released into the Australian community after a stunning ruling.

Three convicted violent criminals – including a murderer – who walked free from immigration detention following a High Court ruling have been detained after Labor cut a deal with Nauru to resettle them outside of Australia.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on Sunday announced the federal government had reached an agreement with Nauru, which had on Saturday issued 30-year visas to three non-citizens released into the Australian community in the wake of the NZYQ legal decision ruling against indefinite detention.

Mr Burke said Nauru had chosen the three individuals, who he confirmed were all “violent offenders” of whom “one is a murderer”.

There have been about 280 former immigration detainees released since the NZYQ decision in 2023, of which at least 65 have reoffended in the community.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says the greatest cost to the Australian community has been the crimes committed by the NZYQ cohort.. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Burke declined to reveal the costs involved in securing the deal with Nauru, but he argued there had been ongoing costs when the individuals, who were all stripped of their Australian visas for failing the character test, were first held in jail for their crimes, then in immigration detention and later when monitored in the community.

“As … has been the case for many, many years, we don’t go through the details of the costs involved,” he said.

“But no cost has been greater than the cost to the Australian community of their crimes.”

Mr Burke said once the three individuals had been issued visas to settle in Nauru, their current Australian bridging visas were automatically voided, which prompted Australian Border Force to redetain them ahead of deportation.

“They will be put on a plane and sent to Nauru as soon as arrangements are able to be made,” he said.

“That will not be within the next seven days, but it will be as soon as possible.

“I want to thank the Australian Border Force for their professionalism and the work that they’ve done overnight and the work that they do every day.”

The former detainees will be free to move around the island and find work.

It’s understood two of the men were based in NSW and one in Western Australia.

ABF officials first contacted and then picked up each of the men on Saturday evening, with the NSW contingent taken to Villawood Immigration Detention Centre and the WA man taken to Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre.

Mr Burke said he had recently inspected the living facilities in Nauru designated for any individuals granted visas to settle there and confirmed the former detainees would be free to move around the island and find work.

“They are individual dwellings, shared kitchen space,” he said.

“(The individuals) are not contained, they are able to move around the island … it’s a relatively short walk to a bus that will allow them to be go to the community and they will be allowed to work in the community.”

Mr Burke said the NZYQ ruling had made it clear the government could only detain these non-citizens if there was “genuine opportunity to remove them (from Australia) in the near future,” and the new Nauru offer clearly provided that possibility.

Mr Burke also acknowledged Labor had effectively been unable to implement preventive detention orders against even higher risk former detainees in the NZYQ cohort as the threshold in that legislation set by previous constitutional precedents was “very, very high”.

He said there may be some other community safety orders, particularly around supervision in the community, that could be imposed on the released individuals, but this would not effectively deal with the bulk of the NZYQ cohort who have been at large since the court ruling.

When one of the former detainees, known only as YBFZ, successfully challenged Labor’s community safety measures like imposing ankle monitor and curfews on the released cohort, the government late last year passed new legislation that would allow Australia to arrange resettlements in third countries.

Mr Burke said the government of Nauru had “approached Australia while the legislation was in parliament with an interest in forming an arrangement with Australia where they would decide, as a sovereign nation, who they might want to issue a visa to”.

Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said more than a year on from the Albanese Government’s “detainee debacle” there were still “almost 280 violent non-citizens free in the community”.

“Sixty-five have reoffended against Australians since Labor let them out,” he said.

“Zero have been preventively detained under laws rushed through in December 2023.

“Sending just a handful to Nauru is hardly going to keep Australians safe.”

Originally published as Labor cuts deal with Nauru over convicted criminals