MELBOURNE – Australia will soon deport three violent criminals including a convicted murderer to Nauru even though they are not citizens of the tiny Pacific atoll, after an Australian court ruled that dangerous immigrants can no longer be imprisoned indefinitely.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Sunday that three “violent offenders” had been issued 30-year Nauru visas on Saturday.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said on Monday that more than 200 immigrants with criminal records who could not be deported would remain in Australia despite the Nauru deal.

“The government’s claiming they’re going to get rid of three criminals, but there’ll still be more than 200 left,” Dutton told reporters.

Nauru’s President David Adeang was due to give a statement to local news outlets on Monday about “new arrangements with Australia on the resettling of non-citizens,” according to a post on the government’s Facebook page on Sunday.

The statement was not available online Monday afternoon and Adeang’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Australian High Court forces the release of more than 200 immigrants

An Australian High Court decision in 2023 overturned the government’s policy of leaving in detention immigrants who failed Australia’s character test, usually because of criminal conduct. The government said they could not be deported.

Countries including Afghanistan are considered unsafe for their nationals to be repatriated. Iran refuses to accept Iranians who are not returning voluntarily.

The test case was brought by a member of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority identified in court as NZYQ. NZYQ was brought to Australia in a people smuggler’s boat in 2012 and raped a child soon after being released into the Australian community.

He served a prison sentence and was then transferred into indefinite immigration detention until he won his court case.

More than 200 immigrants who cannot be deported have been released from detention as a result of the NZYQ case. Some have committed more crimes and have returned to prison.

The opposition has accused the government of failing to protect the community by freeing dangerous immigrants.

The issue has damaged the government’s popularity and elections are due by May 17.

Three immigrants plan to fight deportation to Nauru in court

Ian Rintoul, the Sydney-based director of the Australian advocacy group Refugee Action Coalition, said the three men scheduled to be sent to Nauru received lawyers on Monday.

They intended to challenge their deportations in court, Rintoul said.

One was an Iraqi and another an Iranian. Rintoul did not know the nationality of the third, but did not think he was NZYQ.

Australia pays Nauru, a nation of 13,000 people, to house asylum seekers who attempt to reach Australia by boat.

Australia has all but ended the trafficking of asylum seekers from Southeast Asian ports by refusing to resettle any who arrive by boat.

Rintoul said almost 100 asylum seekers who remain Australia’s responsibility are in Nauru waiting to be resettled.

Burke declined to say how much Australia was paying Nauru to resettle the three criminals. Nauru had chosen them, and Burke declined to say why they were selected.

Burke said more immigrants that Australia cannot deport could be sent to Nauru.

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Associated Press writer Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.