Australia has signed a new deal with Nauru to take about 350 immigrant criminals who were spared deportation and freed from immigration detention centres by Labor following a controversial High Court decision.
The NZYQ cohort, named after the pseudonym given to a Rohingya child rapist who the court in November 2023 ruled couldn’t be held indefinitely, includes paedophiles, murderers, rapists and major drug traffickers who have been fighting deportation since completing jail sentences.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Nauru President David Adeang on Friday to pay the Micronesian nation $408 million followed by $70 million per year for resettlement costs for the foreign criminals.
“Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru’s long-term economic resilience,” Home Affairs said in a statement.
“In announcing the MOU, the President and Minister referred to further long term visas to be granted by Nauru to people who no longer have a legal right to remain in Australia.
“This MOU will allow the continued management of the NZYQ cohort.”
Mr Burke said: “Anyone who doesn’t have a valid visa should leave the country. This is a fundamental element of a functioning visa system.”
Dozens of the released detainees have faced court since being released after breaching their visa conditions, and several have gone on to be charged with violent offending, including Zimbabwean immigrant Lominja Friday Yokoju.
Yokoju, who was released from Yongah Hill Detention Centre in Perth immediately after the NZYQ decision, is now behind bars charged with murder after allegedly bashing and stomping photographer Dominic O’Brien, 62, to death in Footscray, Melbourne, in June.
Another released detainee, Kuwaiti-born Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan, was charged with allegedly bashing an elderly Perth woman Ninette Simons during a robbery in April, 2024, but earlier this year was released on home detention bail.
It is unclear whether Yokoju and Doukoshkan will be sent to Nauru after their court matters are complete.
A majority of the NZYQ cohort have been receiving a “special benefits payment” of up to $2,000 a month since being released.
Header image: Left, Friday Yokoju. Right, Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan (Facebook).
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