Australia reached an agreement with Nauru to transfer deported non-citizens whose visas were canceled on character grounds. Nauru, with about 13,000 residents, previously hosted an offshore asylum processing center and derives significant government revenue from holding asylum seekers. The deal reportedly includes up to $1.62 billion in payments over 30 years, equating to over $100,000 per current resident, and requires Nauru to accept at least 280 people from the affected cohort. Australian lawmakers are preparing legislation to streamline third-country deportations. The arrangement draws comparisons to U.S. policies under President Trump that deport migrants to third countries where they are not citizens.
Nauru, one the world's smallest countries by area and population, is home to some 13,000 people. It has long played a controversial role in Australia's migration policy, as host to a center for Australia asylum seekers that has drawn intense international criticism. More than half of Nauru government revenue already comes from holding Australia asylum seekers in limbo, by some estimates. The new deal adds deportees whose asylum claims have been denied over past criminal convictions.
The deal would see Australia pay Nauru some $1.62 billion over 30 years, Reuters reported - a figure neither side has confirmed. That would amount to more than $100,000 per each current resident of Nauru. The small island nation has agreed to take in at least 280 people from the a cohort of non-citizens in Australia whose visas were canceled on "character grounds." The governments of Australia and Nauru did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the deal.
Trump's crackdown on immigration in the United States includes deporting migrants to third countries of which they are not citizens, such as Uganda and South Sudan. This has drawn some comparisons to Australia's approach, including its policy of holding asylum seekers who arrive by boat in offshore "processing" centers such as the one in Nauru. "That is a good idea," Trump said of the Australian policy in a phone conversation in 2017, during his first term in office, with then-Australian-prime-minister Malcolm Turnbull, according to a transcript of the conversation obtained by The Washington Post. "We should do that too. You are worse than I am."
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