The last refugee held by Australia on Nauru has been evacuated off the island, flying into Brisbane on Saturday night, marking the end — at least for now — of more than a decade of offshore processing on the Pacific island.
However the Australian government says it remains committed to offshore processing as a policy.
It maintains an offshore detention center in abeyance on the island, which it says is “ready to receive and process any new unauthorized maritime arrivals.”
Human rights and refugee advocacy groups have welcomed the end of offshore processing on Nauru, but said that many of those held suffered irreparable damage in indefinite detention on the island.
“All my friends are so happy this week,” said Betelhem Tibebu, a human rights activist and refugee previously held on Nauru. “We don’t have to lose any more friends, people don’t have to get sick, no trauma and no fear. Nauru, it killed us mentally, for us Nauru is hell, where we lost our lives.”
Australia’s second iteration of offshore processing on Nauru began in September 2012. The number of refugees and asylum seekers held on the island peaked in August 2014 at 1,233 people.
A handful of flights over the past month has seen the final remaining refugees transferred off the island. Two asylum seekers are to remain on the island, facing domestic legal charges, and one refugee married on Nauru and has chosen to remain.
There are still 80 refugees and asylum seekers held in Papua New Guinea (PNG), most in Port Moresby.
At least 14 people have died in offshore detention since it was restarted in 2012, including by being murdered by guards, through medical neglect and suicide.
Many of the refugees evacuated from Nauru over the past few months and years had lived still in fear of being forcibly returned, Tibebu said.
“Every six months when we renew our visa we hear that we can be sent back to Nauru. I never sleep peacefully because I worry they will take us back at night, not just me but all of us... I am happy no one is there now,” Tibebu added.
Refugee Action Coalition spokesperson Ian Rintoul said that Australia’s offshore detention record on Nauru “will forever stain the record of both sides of Australian politics.”
“Though they committed no crime, refugees sent to Nauru lost 10 years of their lives,” Rintoul said. “As long as Nauru remains open and refugees remain in limbo in PNG, the dark chapter of offshore detention will not be finally closed.”
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre director of advocacy Jana Favero said “one chapter of misery is over” and praised the government’s action in evacuating the remaining refugees and asylum seekers.
“Over the past decade our government stood by and witnessed abuse, assault, neglect, harm and suffering in offshore detention. Men, women and children sought safety and protection, yet we banished them simply for the sake of politics,” Favero said.
Ahead of the final flight off the island, an Australian Department of Home Affairs spokesperson said Australia’s border policies had not changed and the Nauru processing center stood “ready to receive and process any new unauthorized maritime arrivals, future-proofing Australia’s response to maritime people-smuggling.”
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