The Pacific Island nation’s government has also said the 600 people in the detention centre on the island, which is run on behalf of Australia, will be granted freedom of movement.
But Daniel Webb from Australia’s Human Rights Centre said even if detainees were designated as refugees and in need of protection, they still would not be allowed to move off the island.
Mr Webb said it was not realistic to expect vulnerable, traumatised people to be able to rebuild their lives in a tiny, isolated country.
He said the Australian government must re-settle them elsewhere.
Nauru ‘will move to process’ applications
The Malcolm Turnbull-led Australian government has welcomed news that Nauru will move to process all remaining asylum seekers, though questions have been raised over the timing of the announcement.
Refugees will be among those helping to resettle the remaining 600 asylum seekers in the Nauru immigration detention centre, according to a statement issued by the Nauru government.
The decision comes just days before a legal challenge examining the Australian Government’s role in the centre’s operation.
The full bench of the High Court is scheduled to hear a challenge to the lawfulness of the government’s role in offshore detention on Nauru on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the Human Rights Law Centre’s director of legal advocacy Daniel Webb.
