Adnan* says he had never heard of Nauru when Australian Border Force officers showed up at his door in the middle of the night to inform him Nauru had granted him a 30-year visa.
Initially believing Nauru was part of Australia, Adnan felt a brief sense of relief before he realised he was being sent back to a place he had become uncomfortably familiar with – immigration detention.
“I thought there had been a mistake. I hadn’t had a lawyer for years, and I had never really understood what was happening in my case,” he told Guardian Australia through his lawyer.
“I have been in detention since, trying to figure out how all of this happened to me, and why I have been selected for this punishment.”
The man, whose real name Guardian Australia is not using to reduce the risk of reprisal, is one of more than 350 people within the so-called NZYQ cohort, which the federal government has promised to deport to the tiny Pacific island in a $2.5bn deal.
In 2023, the high court ruled the government’s policy of indefinitely locking up non-citizens who cannot be deported to another country was unconstitutional. The judgment paved the way for the group’s release.
It’s a cohort consisting of many different stories. Some – including Adnan – have had their visas cancelled on character grounds after being convicted of crimes and sentenced to 12 months or more in jail. Others have been refused a visa but cannot be deported because they are refugees or stateless.
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A number of people within the group have since been subject to strict monitoring conditions, including ankle monitors, as part of tough restrictions to ensure community safety.
A deal struck with Nauru in February means authorities can apply for long-term visas on behalf of people within the NZYQ cohort without their knowledge. Once Nauru grants the visa, Australian authorities can re-detain the visa holder in an immigration detention centre until they are sent to the island.
The government swiftly passed laws in September stripping non-citizens on removal pathways of natural justice – a legal principle affording everyone access to a fair hearing and to a decision without bias.
The changes aim to speed up deportations by removing the cohort’s right to taking further legal challenges that might delay their deportation.
In recent months, authorities have been conducting night-time and dawn raids on those within the cohort who have been granted a 30-year visa for Nauru – an island home to just 12,000 people and with limited physical and mental health services.
Guardian Australia has spoken to lawyers for eight people who have since been sent back to immigration detention awaiting their eventual deportation. Many more are believed to have been re-detained but with the government refusing to release any details, human rights groups are left to investigate who is suddenly missing from the community.
Adnan says it feels as if he is “living in a nightmare”.
Upon his re-detainment, Adnan told border force officers he wanted to see his wife and children after being apart for more than a decade. Adnan could not leave the country or bring his family to Australia prior to his conviction because he had been placed on temporary protection visas.
Adnan says he found out about his visa for Nauru in the middle of the night when border force officers came to his door and took him back into detention.
“These days are like living in a nightmare. I made mistakes since I came to Australia – I have been punished for those mistakes. I have tried everything to put my life back on track. I am not a young man – I cannot keep rebuilding my life. I do not know why Australia has selected me for this terrible punishment,” he says.
The deputy chief executive of the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, Jana Favero, says Australia’s treatment of noncitizens with criminal convictions is divisive and unfair.
“If two people commit the same crime, but only one faces exile to a remote island penal colony after they’ve done their time, that’s not justice – it’s divisive and sends a message to people without citizenship that they will never be equal,” she says.
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Details about the criminal histories of the people within the NZYQ cohort are scant but the home affairs department in March said 13 had been convicted for murder or attempted murder.
About 95 have had a criminal history of sex-based offending and 133 have been previously convicted of assault, violent offending, kidnapping or armed robbery. At least nine have been found guilty of low-level crimes or have no criminal history. All were detained after serving their sentences.
Favero says border force’s unannounced night-time visits to people mirrored controversial intimidation tactics by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“What we’ve seen with ICE in the US is now becoming reality here – and families will be torn apart, with devastating, lifelong consequences,” she says.
“This kind of alarming behaviour by border force officials is copying the worst of tactics from Trump and ICE, turning up unannounced and intimidating people, and in some cases detaining them, simply because of where they were born.”
The Human Rights Law Centre’s legal director, Sanmati Verma, told Guardian Australia the government is ignoring the “brutal reality” of its actions.
“Under the cover of secrecy, the Australian government is pulling people out of the community, locking them in detention, and smuggling them out of the country,” she says.
“No matter where we are from, or what visa we hold, there is a common dignity that binds our communities together. We should not accept our government inflicting lifelong punishment on migrants and refugees, simply because of their visa status.”
A home affairs department spokesperson says it does not comment on operational matters but is “committed to maintaining a migration system that is robust, effective and in the national interest”.
“A memorandum of understanding between Australia and the Republic of Nauru signed on 29 August 2025 enables Australia to effect the removal of individuals who have no legal right to remain in Australia and cannot be returned to a country of which they hold citizenship,” the spokesperson says.
* Not his real name
