Albanese government deports two more men to Nauru in secret, infuriating human rights advocates

Another two men from the NZYQ-affected cohort have been deported to Nauru in a process human rights advocates say is shrouded in secrecy. Sources told Guardian Australia a Sudanese national, who was detained in the Yongah Hill centre just outside of Perth, and another man held within a different centre were chartered to Nauru last week. There, they join another man, believed to be a Vietnamese national, on the tiny Pacific nation that was once home to Australia’s regional processing for asylum seekers. Just one centre remains open. Related: First person arrives on Nauru triggering Australia’s $2.5bn deal with island nation When asked about the deportation, the home affairs minister Tony Burke said: “If people have had their visas cancelled, we expect them to leave”. Last month, when Burke was how many of the 350 people in the NZYQ group had been re-detained before deportation, he said estimates – which ranged between “high teens to 20s and beyond” – were roughly correct. The $2.5bn deal between Australia and Nauru is expected to last 30 years and will allow Australia to apply for 30-year long-term visas on behalf of the cohort to enable their deportation from the country. Around $20m of the first instalment will become immediately available for the Nauruan government to “facilitate the settlement”, while the remaining $388m will go into a sovereign trust fund, which is expected to co-governed by both the Nauruan and Australian governments. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Ian Rintoul, a spokesperson for Refugee Action Coalition Sydney accused the government of trying to “replace indefinite detention in Australia” with “indefinite detention on Nauru”. “The government also seems to be trying to thwart the high court again by sending people before the high court can consider an upcoming challenge to their new deportation laws,” he said. Ogy Simic, the advocacy head for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said the deportations were happening under a veil of secrecy. “Once again, we are all piecing together fragments of information to try to find the truth of what is being done in our name,” he said. “And meanwhile, people are being deported in secret, locked up on a remote island and given what is essentially a life sentence with no recourse and no right to justice.” Another human rights lawyer, Sarah Dale, Refugee Advice and Casework Service centre director, said she was “incensed by the cloak of darkness that this process remains hidden under”. “To not know if they were afforded due process, access to legal advice, appropriate health assessments or otherwise only echoes every single concern we have flagged with this process, let alone the repugnance of the policy itself,” she said. Details of the agreement between Nauru and Australia remain a secret. Officials from the Department of Home Affairs have previously told a Senate hearing those sent to Nauru, many of whom have been found to be refugees, will be able to live freely within the community. The agreement also apparently state they cannot be sent to another country, where they could face persecution in a situation – otherwise known as chain refoulement. Related: Adnan thought he’d served his time. But one night border force raided his home to deport him to Nauru Adnan*, a man within the NZYQ cohort, told Guardian Australia last month he hadn’t heard of Nauru prior to being re-detained earlier this year by Australian Border Force officials in a night-time raid. “These days are like living in a nightmare. I made mistakes since I came to Australia – I have been punished for those mistakes. I have tried everything to put my life back on track. “I am not a young man – I cannot keep rebuilding my life. I do not know why Australia has selected me for this terrible punishment,” he said. After the deal’s announcement in February, Nauru’s president, David Adeang, said the three men first issued visas had “served their time” in Australian prisons and were no longer subject to any punishment. “Even for the refugees that came here, they have the same history: some of them killed people, some of them are disturbed people. But they will not do that here, instead they will live their life as normal and be happy along with us all,” he said.