As the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee prepares to report tomorrow, Australia’s latest Nauru arrangement should be terminated because it deflects obligations to refugees and leaves stateless people facing prolonged legal limbo without durable protection.

The Australian Government should terminate its latest arrangement with the Republic of Nauru, which deflects Australia’s obligations to refugees under international law and will have real and significant consequences for stateless people in need of protection.

The ‘offshore processing and resettlement arrangements’ are currently under investigation by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee which will report on Wednesday 17 June.

Statelessness in Australia

To be stateless means that a person is not recognised as legally belonging to any country. Stateless people have no nationality, meaning they can struggle to access even the most basic human rights many of us take for granted such as access to education, healthcare and employment.

 The most recent UNHCR Global Trends Report identified 7,503 stateless people in Australia but the true number is likely to be considerably higher, with the first comprehensive study of statelessness in Australia to be published by the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness in the middle of this year.

Many stateless people in Australia are also refugees under domestic immigration law and are currently subject to (or have........

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