Three members of the NZYQ cohort of non-citizens, including a convicted murderer, will be resettled in Nauru after the Albanese government struck a deal with the tiny Pacific nation for an undisclosed sum.
The trio were placed into immigration detention in preparation for their removal from Australia after being granted 30-year resettlement visas by Nauru on Saturday, the home affairs minster, Tony Burke, announced on Sunday.
The NZYQ cohort includes non-citizens released into the community in Australia as a result of a landmark 2023 high court decision, where the court ruled in favour of “NZYQ”, a stateless Rohingya man, who faced the prospect of detention for life because no country had agreed to resettle him, due to a criminal conviction for raping a 10-year-old in Australia.
The high court ruled that immigration detention is unlawful where there is “no real prospect” of it becoming practical to deport the person “in the reasonably foreseeable future”.
As a result of the ruling, more than 200 non-citizens were released from indefinite immigration detention into the community.
Guardian Australia understands the stateless man known publicly as NZYQ was not one of the three non-citizens to be resettled in Nauru.
The three men all have criminal histories, including one who has been convicted of murder, Burke said.
“When somebody has come and treated Australians in a way showing appalling character, their visas do get cancelled, and when their visas are cancelled, they should leave,” Burke said in Canberra.
It comes after Labor passed new laws in November giving the Australian government the power to pay third countries to accept unlawful non-citizens on a removal pathway, allowing them to be re-detained if they refuse.
Burke declined to offer details of the arrangement with the Nauruan government, including the cost of any payments handed over for the trio’s resettlement.
“Yes, there’s a cost in reaching arrangements with third countries,” Burke said.
He said there was also “a cost in the high level of monitoring” under Operation Aegis, which was established between the Australian federal police and Australian Border Force to ensure detainees released after the NZYQ high court decision adhered to strict new conditions placed upon their visas.
“There was also a cost when [the three non-citizens] were being held in detention. There was a cost before that, when they were being held in prison.
“But no cost has been greater than the cost to the Australian community of their crimes.”
It is expected lawyers representing the trio will mount a legal challenge against the government to determine whether the resettlement is lawful.
Burke said the Commonwealth would respond with “very strong positions”, noting the laws had been drafted after considering “every available precedent”.
The three individuals will remain in immigration detention for at least seven days before they are flown to Nauru.
Burke said that once in Nauru, the three men would reside in individual facilities with a shared kitchen space, be free to move around the island and would have working rights.
Jana Favero, deputy chief executive of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre , said the announcement suggested those not born in Australia would never be treated equally.
“To see this play out in the media, possibly just before an election is called, sets a dangerous precedent and raises serious questions about the fairness of these actions,” she said.
“There has to be consideration of the lawfulness of banishing people offshore, when they’ve been living as part of our community – it’s a complete disregard of people’s human rights.”
The Greens senator, David Shoebridge, accused the federal government of pandering to the opposition by choosing a “divisive and dehumanising path”.
“This posturing by Labor doesn’t build their brand, all it does is legitimise Dutton’s brutal rhetoric on migration and citizenship,” he said.
“No one is in immigration detention because they have committed a crime. They are in immigration detention because of a visa issue.
“Make no mistake, history has told us what will happen next: people will die, families will be separated, and the major parties will still blame migrants for problems they created.”
• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
