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‘Immediate pause’ urged on ‘secret’ Nauru deal after speech raises security concerns
International

‘Immediate pause’ urged on ‘secret’ Nauru deal after speech raises security concerns

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The federal government is under pressure to pause the deportation of former immigration detainees to Nauru, following concerns a resettlement deal with the Pacific country could conflict with Australia’s international obligations.
Australia has pledged $408 million to rehouse Nauru’s hundreds of former immigration detainees, known as the NZYQ cohort, some of whom are convicted criminals.

However, it appears Nauru is attempting to return the cohort to their home country where possible, with Nauru’s President David Adeang claiming they are not refugees.

On Monday evening, in the Senate chamber, Senators David Pocock and David Shoebridge read an independently translated version of Adeang’s February interview explaining the deal. The translated version was provided by the Asylum Seeker Resource Center (ASRC).
Shoebridge said Adeang’s comments raise concerns about the safety of those sent to the island and further demonstrate why the Nauru deal remains shrouded in secrecy.
“We know there are several refugees in this cohort, and the Nauruan president is telling his people that none of the people being forcibly deported are refugees,” he told reporters.

“Australia has an absolute obligation to ensure they are not returned to a country where they face a proven risk of persecution.”

Nauru’s president David Adeang is not taking NZYQ cohort refugees into account, a translation of an interview has revealed. Source: MONKEY / Dominic Giannini

He said the translation was the “clearest evidence of Nauru’s intentions” and urged the government to abandon a deal that would “send people into conditions of deliberate and deliberate cruelty against our international obligations”.

“There must be an immediate pause on sending any more people to Nauru when we know Nauru has a clear intention to relocate them,” he said.
Under the Refugee Convention, Australia has an obligation not to return people who are considered refugees to their country if they may face violence and persecution there. The principle is known as non-refoulement.
Adeang also devoted much of the interview to assuring Nauruans that they will not be threatened by arrivals with criminal histories.

Translations of what Adeang said have previously been withheld from the public, both by the Federal Court and the Supreme Court. Both the Australian and Nauruan governments have refused to provide an official translation of the interview into the little-spoken language.

After defying a Senate order to produce a translation, Foreign Minister Penny Wong argued that this was contrary to the public interest and could “reasonably be expected to damage Australia’s international relations”, including Australia’s position in the region.
Last month, it was a speech by Adeang that confirmed Nauru had accepted the first cohort of deportees from Australia, with the exact number unclear.
ASRC advocacy chief Ogy Simic thanked senators for reading the translation and said the “secrecy and corruption” of the deal needed to be scrutinized.
“It is now time for a royal commission into offshore processing,” he told reporters.
“At the very least, the government needs to scrutinize very closely what is happening on Nauru.”
– With additional reporting by Australian Associated Press.

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