Disclaimer: Since the time of recording, the formerly-known Republic of Nauru has changed its name back to the Republic of Naoero. All references in this episode occurred before the decision was made.

"Everyone we spoke to about Nauru mentions the rocks. All I could see around, it was big rocks. There was no actual ground. You were walking on rocks. So probably stones that would be, you know, around 10 to 20 centimetres. They were not like rounded and soft, you know, river stone kind of thing. They were sharp."

"They also mentioned the heat. It was hot. It was hot, like 40 or 50. Never seen in my life that kind of weather. Never. I never see the weather. Never in my life. Not even in Africa. That kind of weather I never see."

And for those living in Australia's offshore detention camps on Nauru, they also talk about the loss of hope.

"Because nobody here, nobody here want to hear my situation. Nobody want to look at my situation. It is up to you. You can die. No problem, no problem."

This is Out of Sight, Out of Mind. A podcast from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre about the fight for change in Australia's attitude and treatment of refugees and people seeking asylum. Over the next four episodes, you'll hear from those directly impacted by Australia's offshore detention system. Stories of despair and hope. Human stories that live beyond the statistics and the media cycles. Because there is a better way.

I am Bahaa Dabbagh. I'm a refugee who left Syria 10 years ago with my cat Sasha. I'm also a refugee advocate living in Naarm, Melbourne. You might already know me from my stand-up comedy career, or my cooking classes, or from my podcast, Refugee Thoughts. This is episode one, Nauru Now.

In June 2023, three refugees are transferred from offshore detention on Nauru to Australia. The offshore detention center that Australia had set up a decade before was finally empty. The facility did not remain empty for long. A few months later, people were being sent again to Nauru. As of February 2026, there were nine people detained on Nauru and around 90 living in the community. After the closure of the Manus Island Regional Processing Center, Nauru remains as the only operational facility.

Before we go further, I feel like we should clarify something. You may have heard of the NZYQ cohort. This is the group who lived in Australia on a permanent or other type of visa and have had those visas cancelled due to a criminal conviction. This podcast is not about them.

This podcast is about the over 100 people who arrived by boat seeking asylum who are being kept on Nauru. It's also about the 700 people currently living in Australia on bridging visas, who, because they arrived by boat and have been in offshore detention in the past, have been told that they will never be able to settle here. It's about the thousands of people who spent time, often years, in offshore processing who are still living with the trauma they experienced. And it's about the people in the future who face a similar fate.

Because as former Labor PM Kevin Rudd said in 2013, people who come by boat now have no prospect of being resettled in Australia. The rules have changed. The key thing here is arriving by boat. This is what triggers a person seeking asylum in Australia to be sent to offshore processing. And Australian government, both Labor and Liberal, have maintained this stance.

This podcast is about those men, women, and children who, because of a cruel and inhumane government policy, are destined for a life in limbo. This podcast is about these people's strength and courage in the face of this treatment.

Picture this. Row upon row of demountable buildings set out in the baking heat of an equatorial sun. At first, it looks like some sort of cheap motel you'd see on a disused highway. But then you'd notice the fences. Few trees for shade, isolated from the main community by rock-filled and potholed roads, phosphate mines and jungle. Little support for the mental trauma already experienced during the flight from your country and the one you're going through now. No way to spend your days except ruminate on your plight and try to hang on to the small amount of hope that remains.

"In my background, in my country, I had problems."

Ravi is a young man, originally from Bangladesh, who sought asylum in Australia. We've changed his name and are using a voice actor to protect his identity.

"That time I decide I come to Australia by boat. So I come by boat. The police officers, they get us and they send us to Nauru. They said in Nauru we have detention centers. You guys go there for medical checkup and for our processing. They just put us in detention center for six months."

He's been in Nauru now for over two years. First as a detainee in Australia's regional processing center and then released into the community. He has little prospect of being able to settle in Australia.

"They treat us like animals. We are animals. We don't have any hope. We don't have any dreams. Like if we got any problem in Nauru... No one responds to that. Like if we have any problems like health problem, like legal problems here, we are helpless."

"I'm Maryam. I came to Australia by boat in 2013. After about two months around Christmas Island, we were transferred to Nauru."

At the beginning of May 2026, a Senate inquiry in Australia heard submissions detailing the many instances of neglect, systemic abuse and breakdowns in basic safety.

"You could hear children, every day you could hear children were crying and women are shouting. The food was very poor. Most of the time we were hungry. Kids were hungry. A lot of us lost weight. Myself, I went down to 40 kilograms at that time."

Shortly after the public hearings for this inquiry, the Albanese government pledged in its 2026 budget to allocate nearly $2 billion over the next four years to offshore processing. Over $13.5 billion has been spent by Labor and Liberal governments on offshore processing since 2012.

"My name is Bernadette McGrath and I'm the CEO of Overseas Services to Survivors of Torture and Trauma. All the time people are being held in conditions that… extremely uncomfortable, often didn’t meet their physical or mental health needs, didn’t provide adequate opportunities for employment, education, separation from family, and all the time not having any kind of end date."

Many of those who spoke at the recent Senate inquiry are calling for the end to these systems.

"The conditions that we've heard and our clients and people who we're working with directly tell us has been consistent over the last 14 years. This is Jana Favaro, Deputy CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Center. And of the 90 people who are currently working with, 95% are experiencing mental health conditions, 93% are experiencing physical health conditions. Our audit also showed that people are really, really scared and not knowing what is happening to them in their future, as people were told they were going there for a couple of months and they now have been on Nauru for over two years."

And while the political machinations continue, people such as Ravi continue to suffer.

"I don't have any choice. Please help us. Please try to do something for us."

The time spent in detention on Nauru was extremely painful for Ravi.

"I was detained in the detention center for five months, 20 days, something like that. In the detention center, it was very stressful. It is one room, like I cannot see outside and I cannot go outside without people's permission. You know, all the time in the one room."

Nauru is one of the world's tiniest independent states. Situated in the Pacific Ocean, around 40 kilometers south of the equator, its total land size is 21 square kilometers, which holds a local population of around 13,000 people. According to United Nations statistics, close to half of those under the age of 24 are either out of work or out of education or training. Nauru's economy is heavily reliant on foreign aid, including millions of dollars in support from Australia.

Internet and phone calls are expensive, making it difficult to keep in touch with loved ones. In his time in detention, Ravi's calls were heavily restricted.

"I want to see my family because I miss my family. I miss everyone when I am here. I told the security guys, I like to talk to my family. They said, no, you don't have permission to call."

And without contact with the outside world, there was not a lot to do to pass time and keep hope alive.

"Sometimes deep down, sometimes go round, sometimes talking with two other friends, sometimes all the night. I just block it out in the room."

Since being released from detention, Ravi has been living in the community in a one-room portable building, like the kind you would see on a building site.

"So here I have lots of problems in Nauru. Medical problem, financial problems, food problem. I have accommodation problems. I don't have a work permit. I cannot work in Nauru."

Without a work permit, Ravi is forced to live on the small amount the Australian government gives him in a fortnightly allowance. With Nauru highly dependent on food imports to feed its population, this allowance is barely enough.

"Every fortnight they give $260. But here the vegetables too expensive. Everything too expensive. Cabbage $16. A carrot $18. Tomato is $19. The chicken $12. The beef $24. Everything here expensive."

Ravi faces other difficulties too.

"It is very hard. We have the air conditioner. But sometimes we have an electric problem. The power goes out. Sometimes everything stops. Water, electricity. Over the 24 hours, the electricity goes out. When we buy something, we put in the fridge, the power goes out and the food is damaged. Every day they are just torturing me like an animal. I'm not an animal. They control my life. I don't like this."

"So my name is Paul Farrell, investigative reporter for about 15 years at The Guardian and at the ABC, and I'm currently working as a barrister in New South Wales."

During his time as a journalist, Paul Farrell wrote a lot about Australia's immigration policy and about the conditions in our country's offshore detention centres.

"We're talking about Nauru and offshore processing because it's happening again. The Labour government about two years ago saw fit to effectively reopen what everyone had assumed was the mothballed Nauru immigration facility."

"I think the other thing that's really shifted is the wave of populism that's swept the world and how that's impacted more broadly on conversations around migration. First Donald Trump, then Nigel Farage."

"Could Pauline Hanson be the next populist to win big? A Queensland senator flirting with the role of Prime Minister." "Would I be able to do the job? I believe I could."

"I think there's considerably less political resistance to… having these facilities on Nauru now because of what's happened over the last decade with Trump's rise."

"But all over the world, they're coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world. They're pouring into our country. Nobody's even looking at them. They just come in."

It's the waves of populism we've seen both overseas and here.

"Europe's immigration policies are facing the heat under pressure from far-right politics. There's also the possibility of member states to detain migrants and there's the possibility of member states to create return hubs in cooperation with third countries."

And the sort of increasing resistance to immigration that some Australians now feel.

"Anti-immigration protesters and a pro-Palestinian rally clashed on Melbourne's Bourke Street."

"Australia has developed a model that is being adopted internationally. The first flight will leave in 10 to 12 weeks."

Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak directly referenced Australia's offshore detention policy as a model for his government's introduction of a similar system sending asylum seekers to Rwanda. And the success of this deterrent doesn't rest on one flight alone.

"It rests on the relentless, continual process of successfully and permanently removing people to Rwanda with a regular rhythm of multiple flights every month over the summer and beyond until the boats are stopped."

And the Trump administration has made deals with a number of countries including El Salvador and Equatorial Guinea to accept deported non-citizens.

"Our top story is from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The first set of US deportees have arrived in the country." This is part of Trump's third-country deportation deals with African nations.

Offshore processing has been maintained by successive governments in Australia.

"The reality is that both major parties have, for the last 15 years, considered offshore processing to be a bipartisan policy. I think the reason that they think that is because they've always been afraid of this issue of the specter of people arriving on boats and this darkness in the Australian psyche around that topic. And they've always been afraid that they will be punished by voters if they're not seen as tough on immigration, as tough on immigrants. And this policy is the real manifestation of that fear."

So is it worth all this to, quote, “stop the vote”? Because despite government efforts, people will still try to escape persecution in any way they can, no matter how dire the outlook. For people like Ravi, that desperate search for freedom has ground to a halt on a small Pacific island.

"We are refugees in Nauru, hopeless and dreamless. So we want to… We want to have a good life, a beautiful life. So here we are treated like we are animals."

The mission of organizations such as the Asylum Seeker Resource Center is to advocate for people such as Ravi who are powerless in this cruel system. Part of the ASRC's work is to give a voice to these very real people, to advocate for their rights to live, to work, to be treated humanely and compassionately.

"The ASRC people I really appreciate. They always try to help us and they always support us. They give good advice, good solutions, how to survive these situations. So I'm thankful for everything. I really appreciate everything the ASRC does. And I'd like to please request from the government to take all the refugees in Australia because they are good people and human people."

The ASRC, with refugees and people seeking asylum, continues to advocate for the end to mandatory detention. And your support for Ravi and people like him is critical for keeping hope alive.

"Please help us. I like to say to Australian people, support us and help us to get back to Australia. I just pray for that."

You can take action. Go to asrc.org.au/action.

Coming up in Episode 2:

We meet Bethlehem and Yasmin, two people who managed to survive offshore detention and a system that put women and children last.

"I feel like I shattered. Everything was shattered. My name was shattered. My religion was taken from me. My language was taken from me. So I feel like I was a cracked mirror. It's hard to collect all the pieces. I was struggling. I feel like a cracked mirror in Nauru."