Australia must halt deportations to Nauru as Senate inquiry established and lives remain at risk 

18 December 2025 

Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Australia welcomes the establishment of a Senate inquiry into Australia’s offshore processing and resettlement arrangements. 

This Inquiry comes following concerning allegations of corruption and human rights abuses surrounding the government’s Nauru deal, including whistleblower reports of financial mismanagement, the involvement of criminal organisations, and attempts to mislead the Australian public as to the nature of the deal.   

The Inquiry has been established with the mandate to examine Australia’s offshore arrangements, including payments to contractors and third parties, and the integrity and value for money of these measures. 

This step is necessary, but it is not sufficient.  

While Parliament begins this long-overdue scrutiny, a report will not be delivered until mid-June. The report will also not bind the government to stop its practice of offshore detention and deportation. 

Meanwhile, real people – members of our community – are being deported right now to Nauru, facing a lifetime of exile, family separation, discrimination, abuse and the very real risk of repatriation. 

Gabrielle Leafe, JRS Australia’s Service Capacity Building Manager, reflected on the people in our community who are facing deportation: 

“During my work with people detained at Villawood, I met many of those now facing re-detention and deportation,” she shared. “To sign a secret deal with the Nauruan Government that effectively strips non-citizens of their right to due process is abhorrent.”

“This is not community safety. It is indiscriminate, lifelong punishment inflicted simply because they are not citizens. It strips people of due process, exiles people in secrecy and inflicts lifelong punishment based on visa status.” 

Australia cannot wait for a report due months from now, while harm is actively occurring and people in our community are living in fear.  

“This uncertainty is always on my head.” — Ali* 

Ali* is a client at JRS Australia. He lives in our community on a Bridging Visa, despite having a protection finding.  

Ali has spent years in immigration detention in Australia. He was subject to violence in detention, which resulted in a spinal injury that worsened and then became irreparable due to inadequate medical care.

Ali is now in community detention, paralysed, reliant on a catheter and full-time personal care, and has not left his home in more than a year. 

“In 2019, I wasn’t bed-bound. I had hope,” shared Ali. “Now I don’t, the hope didn’t happen. My legs gave out in detention and I became paralysed.”

As a member of the NZYQ Cohort, despite his severe health needs, he remains legally subject to deportation to Nauru.  

Ali wants to learn how to embrace his new normal, and find ways to be independent. Instead, Ali is forced to spend his days in fear of receiving a call that could put his life at risk. 

“Nobody else can do anything, this feeling of uncertainty is always on my head,” shared Ali. “My situation has been so long under stress.”   

This injustice has been made possible by the Anti-Fairness Bill passed by Parliament in September 2025, which enables the government to make deportation decisions without notice, opportunity for review, or meaningful assessment of health, risk, or human rights concerns. 

“I did everything that was asked of me and more,” shared Ali. “Yes, I made a mistake, but I am receiving a lifetime of punishment.”  

“Sending me to Nauru would be a death sentence, there is no way I can manage there. Do you think I will survive in Nauru?”
 

Well-founded fear of human rights risks in Nauru 

Recent revelations across the refugee sector and media have exposed deep structural failures in Australia’s offshore arrangements including the misuse of taxpayer funds, inflated and inappropriate contracts, security operations linked to criminal networks, AUSTRAC warnings about suspicious financial movements linked to senior Nauruan political figures, and secret multibillion-dollar agreements lacking appropriate oversight. 

Conditions on Nauru remain unsafe and inadequate. People who have been deported there report lack of food, fear of police and security, limited medical care, and no meaningful supports for disability or trauma. 

Once on Nauru, people face limited legal safeguards, no guaranteed independent monitoring, no effective appeal rights, and the risk of onward removal to countries where they may face persecution. 

Comments attributed to the Nauruan President suggesting people could be “sent back home” also raise the alarming possibility of refoulement, which is a direct violation of international law and contrary to Australia’s responsibility to protect people who have sought safety in our community.  

Lessons from survivors 

Many people here in our community at JRS Australia have experienced detention on Nauru. They continue to feel the effects of this today.  

Layla* is a refugee recognised by Australia, who spent three years detained on Nauru with her children before being medically evacuated to Sydney. 

“We never had any dry clothes,” she shared. “The place was running over with mice and rats. When I asked a Serco officer to remove the rats, he joked that he would take it to the kitchen and cook it for me.” 

The trauma for Layla and her children is long-lasting.  

“My children would wet their beds due to fear and wouldn’t be able to take a shower. When they did, it was less than five minutes.”   

Like many people who experienced offshore detention, Layla remains in limbo, without any pathway to permanency in Australia.  

“I’m not able to go back to Nauru, not able to settle in Australia, not able to go back to my country. What am I meant to do?” 

Now living in a small granny flat and working casually as a disability support worker, Layla is separated from her husband and supporting her children on her own. Despite her efforts to build a life, she says she has “no hope.” 

“I haven’t had a good day since I was detained by Australia. I feel like I am being punished as if I did a crime.” 

The Government must halt deportations to Nauru pending the outcome of the Parliamentary Inquiry. 

JRS Australia calls on the Albanese Government to: 

• Immediately halt deportations to Nauru. 

• Suspend the Nauru arrangement pending a full, independent investigation. 

• Ensure oversight by the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Commonwealth Ombudsman for all people at risk of transfer. 

• Establish transparent, accountable, rights-based processes for all migration and asylum decisions. 

• Commit to ending offshore detention once and for all. 

The Senate inquiry is a critical step, but without stronger investigative powers, it cannot uncover the full truth. A Royal Commission remains essential to expose what successive governments have concealed about corruption, cruelty, and the human cost of offshore processing. 

Fr Brett O’Neill SJ, JRS Australia’s Country Director, said: 

“These Offshore arrangements have always caused immeasurable and unnecessary suffering. Choosing to revive them, and to do so with secrecy and disregard for basic rights, undermines the fairness, dignity, and humanity that Australians enjoy every day.”

We see the compassion of communities who welcome people seeking safety. Our policies must reflect that same compassion.” 

At this pivotal time in history, Australia is at a crossroads. We can continue down the path of secrecy, fear, and cruelty. Or we can choose transparency, accountability, and humanity. 

We urge the Government to choose the latter. 

Have your say 

The Parliamentary Inquiry into Offshore processing and resettlement arrangements is open for submissions to 13 February 2025. Make a submission here.  

*All clients quoted in this statement are referred to using a pseudonym to protect their identity.