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October 13, 2025
Monday 13 October 2025
Damon Johnston
The Australian
About 13 NZYQ detainees have now been scooped up or placed on a deportation hit list by federal authorities as the Albanese government’s $400m Nauru operation ramps up under tight secrecy.
The Australian can reveal the number of detainees earmarked by the Department of Home Affairs for imminent removal to the Pacific island jumped from four in September to at least 13 by last week.
The Nauruan option could see hundreds of an estimated 350-strong NZYQ cohort – freed from indefinite detention following a High Court ruling two years ago – flown against their will to the tiny island that sits more than 3000km northeast of Brisbane.
The Nauruan plan, codenamed Operation Nettlefold, was signed by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and Nauruan President David Adeang in August and is unfolding under strict security.
It’s believed a number of the 13 NZYQ detainees slated to be among the first removed have already been granted Nauruan visas and some are back in detention in Australia pending their removal.
Refugee support groups have moved to launch legal action to block their removal.
The Department of Home Affairs refused to respond to specific questions about the number of NZYQ detainees listed for removal, or how many it intends dispatching to Nauru.
“The Australian government is committed to maintaining a migration system that is robust, effective and in the national interest,” a department spokesperson told The Australian.
“A memorandum of understanding between Australia and the Republic of Nauru signed on 29 August enables Australia to effect the removal of individuals who have no legal right to remain in Australia and cannot be returned to a country of which they hold citizenship. The department does not comment on operational matters.”
Mr Burke is expected to be questioned about the progress of the Nauruan plan when he addresses the National Press Club on Thursday.
While the federal opposition supports the concept of removing the NZYQ detainees to Nauru, it has become increasingly concerned about the Albanese government’s attempts to conduct the operation in secrecy.
“Once again the Albanese government is hiding from scrutiny on a critical matter of public safety,” Liberal senator James Paterson said. “Australians deserve to know exactly how many criminal non-citizens have been sent to Nauru – and how many are left in our community.
“This is another backwards step on transparency for an increasingly secretive government which is showing contempt for Australians’ right to know.”
The Albanese government is paying Nauru an upfront fee of more than $400m and an estimated $70m in annual payments to accept the NZYQ detainees, freed after the High Court ruled their ongoing detention in Australia was unconstitutional.
Since being released back into the community, several NZYQ detainees have committed serious criminal offences, including with violence, and breached curfews and other restrictions.
Among charges some NZYQ detainees now face are assault, criminal damage, aggravated burglary, threatening police officers and drug use.
In a statement released when the Nauruan plan was announced in February, the Department of Home Affairs revealed that once freed, detainees were granted visas but told they could be redetained pending their removal to the Pacific island.
“Nauru will resettle members of the NZYQ cohort as part of a new arrangement with the Australian government,” the department said. “The government of Nauru … issued long-term resettlement visas to three members of the NZYQ cohort. As a result, their Australian bridging visas ceased in line with laws passed by the Albanese Labor government late last year. Australian Border Force personnel subsequently took all three individuals back into immigration detention pending their removal from Australia.
“With valid visas to a third country, these individuals now have a real prospect of removal from Australia – meaning they are no longer affected by the High Court’s NZYQ ruling and have therefore been detained.”
In the February statement, the department said it anticipated this Nauruan plan may be challenged in Australian courts but it remained “confident in the laws we put in place last year to protect community safety”.
“There is nothing more important to this government than community safety. The NZYQ cohort consists of people who broke Australian laws and in doing so surrendered their rights to stay in Australia,” the department said.