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The Pacific island nation may consider sending back asylum seekers from the NZYQ cohort to their home countries, as stated by the Nauruan president in a newly interpreted interview from February.

The discussion has sparked months-long dispute, with erroneous statements that those transferred to the island were not refugees and could be returned to their home nations where feasible.

Asylum Claims Recognized

Authorities have verified that individuals of the NZYQ group have had their asylum applications approved by Australian authorities. Some of the men already transferred to Nauru are part of the group who are refugees.

Some details of the president's remarks was made public, and complete version was read into Hansard by senators recently.

Translation Dispute

The translation presented was not the Australian government’s document, but externally verified interpretation secured by a advocacy center.

The Australian government has fought against publication of its own translation of the discussion, even obtaining a non-publication order in the federal court.

Answering a Senate order to release the government's version, the foreign affairs minister wrote that its release would “prejudice the nation's foreign ties … and our broader standing in the region.”

Involuntary Transfers and International Law

At least five members of the NZYQ cohort have been sent to Nauru and are being held at a regional processing centre on the Pacific island.

The nation is bound by law to safeguard asylum seekers under the UN agreement and must not send them back to their home country where they face a “credible threat of being persecuted.”

Even if that deportation is carried out through a intermediary nation – such as Nauru – it is prohibited, known in international law as “successive returns.”

The island nation is also a party to the convention.

Interview Details

Adeang gave the interview in winter, speaking in Nauruan to a official, and explaining the new agreement the island had agreed to with Australia to accept individuals of the designated group.

This agreement will see Australia transfer money up to $2.5 billion over 30 years.

Adeang said those removed to Nauru by authorities would remain in Nauru for three decades.

“However, we, your government, discover a method for them to move around, for example; they are able to return,” he noted. “The challenge Australia, these people are what you would describe as without citizenship. “Their countries of origin are unwilling to take them back and they do not have a way to return. And if eventually we identify a solution to repatriate them then naturally they will not reach the three-decade period, but the visa we are issuing to begin is three decades.”

Reports suggest none of the individuals sent to Nauru under the recent deal so far are stateless.

Erroneous Statements

The president repeatedly said – falsely – that members of the NZYQ cohort were not asylum seekers.

“Let me be clear, these people are not refugees. They are regular people but their background is that they have been to jail. “Now, they are free to roam around the country and while they are free from sentences but they are not natives and regardless of Australia’s preference to deport them, they are cannot do so.”

Background on NZYQ Cohort

This group is a set of 354 non-residents released from indefinite immigration detention in the country after a supreme court decision in late 2023.

Residency permits had been terminated on “character grounds”, the majority as a due to a prior crime. The majority have completed a prison sentence but must not be sent back to their countries of origin because they are threatened there. A number have resided in the country for a long time and have Australian-citizen partners and children.

Legal and Ethical Objections

One senator stated in parliament that the president's claim that the NZYQ cohort were not asylum seekers was “obviously false.”

“Did the government tell them that? Might Australia have deceived the island's authorities? Do they support what the Nauruan president said about these people lacking asylum status? None of them refugees? “Officials may be ashamed by the fact that President Adeang has made it abundantly clear he wants these people to return from the place of origin. We know that they have fled from persecution by and large.”

The advocacy lead at a refugee support organization said the confidentiality around its third-country arrangements was “deeply alarming.”

He said the lack of disclosure eroded public trust, and wrongdoing prospered in the secrecy of the external system.

“This document shows that the island aims to return refugees to their home nations ‘when possible’, even though these are people Australia has not deported to their country of origin because they are refugees. This means the Australian government has effectively outsourced refoulement – compensating a third nation to do what the nation cannot lawfully do.”

He said the discussion – the disclosure of which was fought by the authorities – revealed a concerning flaw.

“The government claims to be upholding international law while secretly funding for individuals to be sent back to danger via intermediary arrangements.”

A senior lawyer of a human rights organization said the authorities had tried to conceal “the majority of information” of its deal with Nauru.

“Now we learn that the island's authorities could be unwilling of fulfilling its part of this lamentable deal.”

She said the deportations to Nauru must be stopped, because the authorities cannot ensure individuals' security.

“Our government is forcibly removing individuals from their homes and loved ones in the country and exiling them to a nation where they are unaccepted. Our government has understood that it risks dispatching people to their fatal harm – through lack of healthcare they depend on, or by compelling their return to the states they fled as refugees.”

Questions have been made to the relevant departments and the island's administration.