Timeline: Offshore detention
Since July 2013, people in Australia’s care in Papua New Guinea and Nauru have been subjected to an unconscionably cruel and brutal regime of indefinite detention and enforced uncertainty.
Over this time a humanitarian crisis has unfolded, resulting in the tragic loss of life of 14 people in Australia’s care. Despite so much suffering, the Australian Government continues to detain people in Nauru, and refuses to evacuate the people it has abandoned in PNG.
The Government must end this shameful policy and ensure every person who has suffered under it has a safe and permanent home.
2025
June 2025
The arrangement between Australia and New Zealand for the resettlement of 450 refugees previously subject to offshore detention formally closes. Approximately 850 people remain in Australia without any resettlement pathway.
May 2025
Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party wins a second term of government. Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who oversaw the offshore processing regime from 2014 – 2021, loses his seat of Dickson and exits politics.
February 2025
Nauru is the first nation to enter an agreement with Australia to accept people for deportation in exchange for payment pursuant to the new laws passed in November 2024. The Albanese Government attempts to permanently exile three refugees to Nauru. All three refugees launch legal proceedings to fight their deportations.
January 2025
In two landmark decisions, the United Nations Human Rights Committee concludes that Australia remained responsible for the arbitrary detention of asylum seekers sent to offshore detention facilities in Nauru, despite Australia’s denial that human rights breaches occurred within its jurisdiction.
2024
December 2024
Refugees abandoned in Papua New Guinea are stripped of their housing and healthcare under a deal that forces them to cover all their living expenses with one allowance. The new allowance is not enough to cover basic living expenses such as accommodation, food and medication.
November 2024
The Albanese Government teams up with the Coalition to rush through a suite of anti-migrant laws, including the power to deport people to any country in the world and laws protecting the government from legal liability for harm experienced by people in regional processing countries.
August 2024
After a six year battle, the Australian Government agrees to pay compensation to two children who did not receive adequate medical care while detained in Nauru. The Federal Court approved the two confidential settlements. It follows the earlier resolution of two similar cases, among more than 50 negligence cases filed against the government by people who experienced harm offshore.
July 2024
The Australian Government commits further funding to assist with the management of people who remain in PNG after Australia’s supposed withdrawal from offshore processing in the country. Nearly 50 people remain, many of whom have no resettlement pathways.
June 2024
After successive transfers, the number of people held in Nauru reaches 100. The Australian Government confiscates all smart phones, cutting people off from the outside world. There is no plan for their permanent resettlement.
18 March 2024
Faysal Ishak Ahmed – Coronial
Coronial inquest into the death of Faysal Ishak Ahmed, who collapsed on Manus Island after requesting medical treatment for months, begins in the Queensland Coroner’s Court eight years after his death.
12 February 2024
The Richardson Review into the management of offshore processing contracts finds the Department of Home Affairs paid millions of dollars to private companies suspected of bribery, drug smuggling and weapons trafficking.
2023
27 November 2023
Michael Pezzullo is fired from his role as the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs for misconduct, including attempting to exert political influence over government.
November 2023
Refugees in PNG face evictions from their homes after service providers say they have not been paid for more than a year. Funding provided by the Australian Government for their care has run out. The PNG Government launches investigations into allegations of corruption and mismanagement of the funds. Despite an announcement that many people will soon be evacuated to Australia, this does not eventuate.
8 November 2023
Statistics reveal the Labor Government has returned over 200 people, including 14 children, to their countries of origin in boat turnback or takeback operations in its first nine months since taking office.
5 November 2023
The first settlement is reached in one of more than 50 negligence cases filed against the Australian Government in 2018-2019 on behalf of people in offshore detention requiring urgent medical care.
7 September 2023
First new transfers to offshore detention in 9 years
A group of 11 people, including one child, are intercepted at sea and taken to the regional processing centre in Nauru. They are the first people transferred to Nauru since 2014. Eight of the 11 people are subsequently returned to their country of origin.
19 July 2023
#TenYearsTooLong
This day marks ten years since former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s announcement that every person arriving in Australia by boat to seek safety would be sent to offshore detention. Throughout the following decade and beyond, the policy caused immeasurable suffering and the tragic deaths of 14 people. Despite its disastrous impacts, the Albanese Government fails to end offshore detention for good.
June 2023
The remaining refugees still held in Nauru are brought to Australia, after almost a decade of offshore detention. Around 80 people previously detained on Manus Island remain trapped in PNG.
February 2023
At Parliament House in Canberra, Behrouz Boochani calls for a royal commission into Australia’s immigration detention regime
Parliament approves the redesignation of Nauru as a regional processing country, after the instrument from 2012 lapsed.
The Migration Amendment (Evacuation to Safety) Bill 2023, which would offer transfer to Australia to people remaining in Nauru and Papua New Guinea is introduced to Parliament. It is opposed by both major parties. A Senate committee inquiry urged the government to urgently consider all available options evacuate people remaining offshore, but stops short of supporting the bill.
2022
22 November 2022
The first group of 6 refugees arrive in New Zealand from Nauru, approximately nine years after they first arrived in Australia.
November 2022
The UN Committee Against Torture handed down its concluding observations in relation to Australia, calling for the Australian Government to end offshore processing, take measures to protect the rights of people remaining offshore, and provide reparations for victims of human rights violations.
October 2022
Private prison operator Management and Training Corporation takes over Nauru offshore processing contracts from Canstruct International.
July 2022
Mostafa Azimitabar, who spent 15 months detained in hotels after being transferred to Australia from Papua New Guinea under the Medevac legislation, launches legal action in the Federal Court challenging the lawfulness of hotel detention.
A major COVID-19 outbreak in Nauru sparks renewed pleas for the urgent evacuation of the remaining 112 people held on the island. In early-July approximately 40% of the country’s population was infected with COVID-19.
21 May 2022
Federal election
Anthony Albanese becomes Prime Minister.
28 April 2022
The UK Parliament passes the Nationality and Borders Act. The legislation authorises externalisation measures modeled on Australia’s offshore detention regime, further weakening global refugee protection efforts.
April 2022
The Morrison Government releases 26 refugees from the makeshift detention centre at Melbourne’s Park Hotel, after more than two years of detention in Australia after being brought back to Australia from Nauru and PNG.
24 March 2022
New Zealand resettlement deal announced
Nine years after it was first floated, the Australia and New Zealand governments announce an arrangement to allow refugees subject to offshore processing to resettle in New Zealand. The deal covers 150 people per year over three years.
January 2022
World number 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic is taken into immigration detention at a hotel in Melbourne after the cancellation of his visa, bringing international attention to the plight of more than 30 refugees held in the same hotel, more than eight years after they were first detained under Australia’s offshore processing policy.
2021
December 2021
The Morrison Government signs a secret deal with the government of Papua New Guinea to provide ongoing funding for accommodation and services to the people left behind after Australia’s withdrawal from offshore processing, despite publicly claiming that Australia has no ongoing involvement.
1 November 2021
The Queensland Coroner hands down findings following the inquest into the death of Omid Masoumali. Omid died after self-immolating in Nauru in 2016. The Coroner found that Omid’s death was preventable and that almost three years without any prospect of safe resettlement had led him to despair. The Coroner found that the Australian Government had known since at least 2014 that the medical facilities in Nauru were inadequate and that an opportunity for critical mental health support was missed.
October 2021
The Morrison Government announces Australia’s withdrawal from offshore processing in Papua New Guinea at the end of 2021, turning its back on 125 people still stranded in the country after years of detention on Manus Island.
October 2021
A COVID-19 outbreak in the makeshift detention facility at Melbourne’s Park Hotel follows long-held concerns about safety, including the poor ventilation, for refugees held there.
September 2021
The Australian and Nauruan governments sign a memorandum of understanding to establish an “enduring regional processing capability” in in the Pacific country, further entrenching the failed offshore detention policy and drawing criticism from advocates.
July 2021
The parents of murdered Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati, have commenced legal action over his death. Mr Berati was aged 23 when he was beaten to death by guards and other local contractors in a violent rampage at the Manus Island detention centre that also left 77 other asylum seekers injured. Mr Berati’s parents are suing the Australian Government and security operator G4S for wrongful death and mental harm suffered as a result of their son’s murder.
19 July 2021
Eight years of limbo and suffering for more than 230 people still held in Nauru and Papua New Guinea, as well as more than 100 who were brought to Australia but remain in detention.
July 2021
Rohingya refugee Jaivet Ealom releases his book Escape from Manus, detailing his experience of detention in PNG and his journey to seek asylum in Canada.
June 2021
New Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews confirms she is negotiating a resettlement arrangement with New Zealand.
March 2021
COVID-19 outbreak in PNG
Refugees test positive to COVID-19 amid a spiraling outbreak in Papua New Guinea. Calls mount for the Australian Government to urgently transfer people to Australia and to provide vaccinations.
March 2021
Releases from detention
Approximately 50 people are released from detention in Brisbane. Many had been detained for more than 18 months following their transfer to Australia under the Medevac legislation. Others remain in detention around the country.
February 2021
The death of Abdirahman Ahmed Mohammed in Perth brings the total death toll of refugees and people seeking asylum subject to offshore processing to 14. Refugee advocates label the death of the Somali refugee, after years of detention on Manus Island, a “sad picture of the ongoing medical neglect” in offshore detention.
January 2021
More than 60 people are released from detention in Melbourne. Many had been detained for more than 18 months following their transfer to Australia under the Medevac legislation.
20 January 2021
Australia’s human rights performance comes under the spotlight at its Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Forty-seven UN member states raised concerns about and recommended changes to the Australian Government’s refugee, asylum and detention policies
2019
4 December 2019
Medevac is repealed
Bill to repeal the Medevac legislation passes the Parliament and becomes law.
14 November 2019
Behrouz Boochani leaves PNG
Kurdish refugee and award winning journalist, Behrouz Boochani, leaves Papua New Guinea after more than six years, travelling to New Zealand to appear at a literary festival in Christchurch.
17 October 2019
Sayed Mirwais Rohani dies
Afghan doctor and refugee Sayed Mirwais Rohani dies in Brisbane after being transferred from Manus Island for medical treatment in 2016.
19 July 2019
This day marks six years of limbo and suffering for 800 women and men still indefinitely imprisoned on Nauru and Manus Island.
10 July 2019
The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture announced they will visit Australia to shine a light on abuses in places of detention, including adult prisons, youth prisons, police lock-ups and immigration detention facilities. The Human Rights Law Centre has argued that all places of detention in Australia’s control, including Manus Island and Nauru, should be subject to independent inspections.
26 June 2019
Abdul Aziz Muhamat, formerly detained on Manus but now in Switzerland, addresses the UN human rights Council’s 41st session, saying the situation in Australia’s offshore detention camps is a humanitarian crisis.
21 June 2019
A 30-year-old man tries to set himself on fire on Manus. The second person to do so in two weeks.
13 June 2019
Manus Governor Charlie Benjamin demands the Australian Government take responsibility for the men detained there, as incidents of self-harm escalate.
12 June 2019
A Somali refugee on Manus Island sets himself on fire, amid a worsening mental health crisis.
29 May 2019
Manus Island in “unprecedented crisis” as there is a surge in suicide attempts and self-harm after the Australian election.
18 May 2019
The Coalition wins federal election
Scott Morrison and the Coalition win the federal election.
2 April 2019
PM Scott Morrison announces the closure of Christmas Island detention centre just months after reopening.
2 March 2019
The Medevac Bill becomes law
The Medevac Bill allows for the temporary transfer of patients in offshore detention to Australia for the purpose of medical or psychiatric treatment or assessment. Before the Medevac Bill passed, lawyers were forced to run legal challenges or threaten legal action in the Federal Court to evacuate people to receive urgent life-saving medical care.
25 February 2019
The inquest into the death of 23-year-old refugee Omid Masoumali who was detained on Nauru commences.
22 February 2019
NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reaffirms her offer to take refugees from Manus Island and Nauru. The Scott Morrison Government continues to refuse to accept the offer.
12 February 2019
A coalition of MPs pass the Medevac Bill to ensure critically sick people offshore get the care they need in Australia. Scott Morrison announces that the Government will reopen Christmas Island detention centre after the Bill passes.
3 February 2019
No more children detained on Nauru
The last child requiring medical transfer is evacuated to Australia for urgent medical care. There are no more children detained on Nauru.
2018
10 October 2018
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) confirms it’s been forced to end its mental health work by the Nauruan Government and leave the island.
19 August 2018
The faces and stories of the children detained on Nauru appear on the front page of The Daily Telegraph.
30 July 2018
The Queensland Coroner finds that the death of Hamid Khazaei, a 24 year old man indefinitely detained on Manus Island, was “preventable” and that if he was evacuated to Australia for medical treatment sooner he would have survived.
15 June 2018
Fariborz Karami dies
Iranian asylum seeker Fariborz Karami dies by suicide on Nauru.
22 May 2018
Salim Kyawning dies
Rohingya man Salim Kyawning dies after throwing himself from moving vehicle
2017
2 November 2017
Jahingir dies
Jahingir from Bangladesh dies after the motorbike he was riding collided with another vehicle on Nauru.
2 October 2017
Rajeev Rajendran dies
Sri Lankan asylum seeker Rajeev Rajendran dies of a suspected suicide on the grounds of Manus hospital.
26 September 2017
The first group of refugees from Manus Island leave for the US under the resettlement deal.
7 August 2017
Hamed Shamshiripour dies
Iranian man Hamed Shamshiripour dies of suspected suicide after failing to receive appropriate mental health treatment.
21 April 2017
The Senate Committee published a report containing serious allegations of abuse, self-harm and neglect of asylum seekers in offshore detention.
13 March 2017
A 24-year-old Pakistani refugee is attacked on Nauru, resulting in a deep head injury.
27 January 2017
The Australian Government issues an apology to Save the Children employees and pays them compensation.
2016
24 December 2016
Faysal Ishak Ahmed dies
Faysal Ishak Ahmed, a 27 year old Sudanese man, dies in Brisbane. Faysal had fallen and had a seizure at the Manus detention centre. Before his death Faysel was denied medical assistance numerous times.
13 November 2016
The Australian Government announces that some refugees detained on Manus Island and Nauru will be resettled in the USA.
5 November 2016
Amin Afravi, an Iranian refugee on Manus, attempts to set himself on fire for the second time in five weeks.
8 October 2016
Refugee and former aid worker Masoud Ali Shiekhi is hospitalised with serious head injuries after being attacked by a group of locals with rocks in an unprovoked attack as he walked near the transit centre at East Lorengau, Manus Island.
10 August 2016
The Nauru Files
The Guardian released the “Nauru files” – the largest cache of documents to be leaked from within Australia’s asylum seeker detention regime. It details assaults, sexual assaults and self-harm.
9 August 2016
Two refugees on Manus were attacked by a group of seven locals armed with an iron bar.
2 August 2016
Kamil Hussain dies
Kamil Hussain, a 34 year old Pakistani man, dies on Manus Island. The Australian government initially refuses to help repatriate his body.
2 August 2016
The Human Rights Law Centre and GetUp! launch the report Association with Abuse: The financial sector’s association with gross human rights abuses of people seeking asylum in Australia.
11 May 2016
Rakib Khan dies
A Bangladeshi man, Rakib Khan, dies in Nauru of a suspected suicide.
2 May 2016
A 22 year old Somali refugee set herself on fire, and was evacuated to Australia with life threatening burns.
1 May 2016
The Manus Island detention centre becomes an “open centre” in response to being judged unlawful by the PNG Supreme Court.
29 April 2016
Omid Masoumali dies
Omid Masoumali dies in Australia after self-immolating on Nauru.
26 April 2016
The Supreme Court of PNG ruled that the transfer and detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island was illegal and in breach of the right to liberty enshrined in the PNG Constitution.
21 February 2016
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton bows to public pressure and releases Baby Asha into the Australian community.
12 February 2016
Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital refuses to discharge one-year-old “Baby Asha” without a government guarantee that she won’t be returned to Nauru.
6 February 2016
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews writes to then PM Malcolm Turnbull asking him to let the 267 people stay in Australia (other premiers shortly follow suit).
3 February 2016
The High Court of Australia rejects a challenge to the legality of the offshore processing regime. The Government’s victory largely rested on a last-minute retrospective amendment to the Migration Act.
2 February 2016
#LetThemStay
The #LetThemStay movement begins, thousands of people campaign to ensure that the 267 people, including babies, at risk of return to Manus and Nauru are allowed to stay.
2015
31 October 2015
Save the Children leave Nauru.
5 October 2015
Nauru suddenly declares its detention centre “open” 48 hours before High Court case on the legality of offshore detention on Nauru.
15 September 2015
Malcolm Turnbull becomes Prime Minister of Australia.
16 July 2015
The Human Rights Law Centre and Human Rights Watch launch a report on their inspection of Manus, The Pacific Non-Solution, highlighting that more people have died than been resettled.
1 July 2015
The Australian Border Force Act 2015 took effect. Secrecy provisions in the Act make it a crime punishable by two years’ imprisonment for medical professionals, teachers and other people employed in offshore detention centres to disclose information about conditions in detention.
20 March 2015
A Tamil woman, who was hoping to be reunited with her husband in Australia, and who attempted suicide, is secretively and forcibly deported from Australia overnight after being refused access to her lawyers.
20 March 2015
Department of Border Protection releases Moss Review into allegations of sexual abuse on Nauru.
5 March 2015
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture finds that various aspects of Australia’s asylum seeker policies violate the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
2014
13 December 2014
Men held in Manus Island detention centre begin a two week hunger strike.
2 October 2014
Scott Morrison accuses Save the Children staff on Nauru of “coaching” people seeking asylum to self-harm, and 9 staff are deported from Nauru. Morrison announces Moss review into sexual assault and abuse under cover of these accusations.
26 September 2014
Australia makes a deal to send refugees from Nauru to Cambodia.
5 September 2014
Hamid Kehazaei dies
Hamid Kehazaei, a 24 year old Iranian man, dies in a Brisbane hospital after he developed septicemia on Manus Island after cutting his foot.
22 June 2014
Sayed Ibrahim Hussein dies
Hussein drowned when he was caught in a rip swimming in the Galab channel off Nauru.
21 March 2014
The Human Rights Law Centre and Amnesty International inspect the Manus detention centre, the only time that journalists and advocates have been allowed inside the centre.
17 February 2014
Reza Barati is murdered
Reza Barati, a 24 year old Iranian man, is murdered by detention centre staff during protests at the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre.
16-18 February 2014
Protests at the Manus Island Detention Centre lead to violence when detention centre staff and locals entered the centre attack. One person was killed and 77 people were injured.
2013
26 November 2013
The UNHCR reported on conditions in the offshore processing facilities in Nauru and Manus Island. It found that men, women and children were being held in “arbitrary detention in conditions that do not meet international standards.”
18 SEPTEMBER 2013
Operation Sovereign Borders begins
Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister of Australia. Operation Sovereign Borders, a military-led border security operation designed to prevent boats carrying asylum seekers from arriving in Australia, commences.
3 August 2013
Australia signs new agreement with Nauru to detain and resettle refugees in their community.
1 August 2013
A case is filed in the Supreme Court of PNG contesting the legality of Manus Island Detention centre.
19 July 2013
No person seeking asylum by boat to be resettled in Australia
Then PM Kevin Rudd announced that no person seeking asylum by boat in Australia would ever be allowed to settle here. He announced a “Regional Resettlement Arrangement” with PNG to detain and process protection claims in PNG.
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We pay our respect to Elders past and present. This land always was, and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
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