The Australian government has caused thousands of people seeking asylum to suffer grave abuses under its offshore detention system, which began in September 2001, Human Rights Watch said today.
Over the past 25 years, Australia has forcibly transferred more than 5,000 asylum seekers to Naoero (formerly called Nauru) and Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG). Those transferred have experienced inhumane conditions and serious harm to their mental and physical health. The United Nations refugee agency, other countries, and human rights groups including Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly pressed Australia to end offshore processing.
"Australia's offshore detention policy has caused profound harm to men, women, and children seeking refuge since its introduction 25 years ago," said Annabel Hennessy, Australia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Rather than abiding by its international legal obligations toward asylum seekers, Australia has hardened its abusive policies, contributing to a global erosion of refugee law."
Australia's offshore system started on September 17, 2001, when an Australian naval ship forcibly transferred the first group of asylum seekers to the Pacific island nation of Naoero. The then-Coalition government had signed an initial agreement with Naoero on September 10 and deployed a military team three days later to build the detention facility. From 2001 to 2008, Australia transferred 1,637 asylum seekers to Naoero and Manus Island. The policy was suspended by the then-Labor government in 2008, only to be reintroduced in 2012. In this second phase, from 2012 until 2026, Australia transferred more than 4,000 asylum seekers to Naoero and PNG.
While Australia no longer sends people to Manus Island following a 2016 PNG Supreme Court ruling, it continues to forcibly transfer people seeking asylum to Naoero, with an estimated 110 people currently there.
UN bodies, medical professionals, and refugee advocates have long criticized Australia's offshore detention system for the harm it causes. In 2002, Human Rights Watch found that Australian authorities forcibly transferred people offshore and held them in severe conditions on Naoero and PNG, denying them access to legal counsel, and severely restricting their contact with the outside world.
In 2016, Human Rights Watch found similarly harsh conditions for asylum seekers on Naoero, including a poor standard of medical care and frequent unpunished assaults by local residents. Human Rights Watch concluded that the Australian government had violated asylum seekers' rights to be free from arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, among other fundamental protections.
