Sara, a woman in Australia, is pleading for her father Youssef not to be deported to Nauru, a Pacific island nation she describes as a place of 'final and lifelong punishment'. Youssef is one of about 350 non-citizens in the NZYQ cohort, a group of people with criminal convictions who face deportation under a secretive resettlement deal between Australia and Nauru.
Youssef came to Australia in the 1990s seeking protection after absconding from military service in his homeland and was granted a permanent protection visa in 2001. However, over a 13-year period, he was convicted of dozens of non-violent property and drug offences, as well as aggravated burglary and assault with a weapon. His visa was cancelled on character grounds, and after his last jail sentence ended in 2019, he was transferred to immigration detention.
In 2023, the High Court ruled that indefinite immigration detention was unlawful, leading to Youssef's release. Sara recalls picking him up from detention and spending the next two years bonding with him over technology and cars. However, in December 2025, armed Australian Border Force officers arrived to re-detain him after the government signed a deal with Nauru.
Sara says her father has not committed any offences in nearly 10 years and that his re-detention is 'effectively condemning us and punishing us for something that he’s already served his time for'. The Australian government has already sent 12 non-citizens to Nauru on 30-year visas, with many more awaiting deportation.
Sanmati Verma, legal director at the Human Rights Law Centre, says deporting people like Youssef to Nauru constitutes a 'final and lifelong punishment'. She notes that many have already spent double or triple their original sentences in indefinite detention, which the High Court found to be punitive and unlawful.
