Nauru Dislodges Judicial Officials

Jan. 20, 2014 4:21 a.m. ETCANBERRA, Australia—Nauru fired its only magistrate and barred its chief justice from entering the country, in a move legal-rights and refugee groups said suggested the tiny Pacific island may be hardening the asylum-seeker detention system it operates on behalf of Australia.
Nauru President Baron Waqa removed the country’s only resident magistrate, Peter Law, and blocked Australian-based chief justice Geoffrey Eames from entering Nauru just hours before the start of court proceedings for asylum seekers accused of involvement in riots last July at the island’s immigration detention center. Both judicial officials are Australian citizens.

This picture taken on July 20, 2013, and released by Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship shows a burned-out vehicle in front of destroyed buildings after riots at an Australian refugee facility on Nauru. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Asylum seekers intercepted en route to Australia are often held in camps in Nauru funded by Canberra while their refugee claims are assessed.
Messrs. Law and Eames previously have been critical of harsh detention conditions on the island. Along with a second center in Papua New Guinea, the Nauru facility underpins Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s policy of processing asylum seekers offshore and barring their resettlement in Australia—moves introduced to curtail a sharp increase in refugee arrivals last year.
“The timing of this makes it very obvious in my mind what this is all about,” Mr. Law told Australian Broadcasting Corp. state radio, predicting that the government’s actions would derail judicial processes on the island.
Nauru government officials couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.
The move follows a recent increase in visa fees for visiting journalists from 200 Australian dollars ($176) to A$8,000. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both said the visa-fee increase would reduce scrutiny of asylum processes on the remote island nation.
Cash-strapped Nauru, a 13-square-mile atoll with 10,000 people, agreed to host the Australian asylum-detention facility as a way of boosting its economy and reducing unemployment, which is close to 90%. The Asian Development Bank has estimated that hosting the facility could boost Nauru’s economic growth to 8% in the 2014 fiscal year, compared with 4.9% in 2012.
Australia’s immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said Monday he had asked diplomats in Nauru to investigate exactly why the two officials were removed from their posts. The Nauruan government quickly appointed a new magistrate from Australia to take over from Messrs. Law and Eames. Nauru’s solicitor-general, Steven Bliim, resigned over their removal.
Mr. Morrison, who has been accused by opposition lawmakers and rights groups of trying to stifle scrutiny of asylum cases with an undue level of secrecy, said he believed the officials’ removal had nothing to do with asylum issues on the island.
Australia’s Bar Association, representing senior legal figures in Australia, said the process to dislodge Mr. Law appeared to be a “direct affront” to legal protections in Nauru and the independence of the country’s judiciary from government interference.
Australia’s Refugee Action Coalition, a fierce critic of Australia’s tough approach to asylum seekers, which is widely supported by voters, said Nauru’s move was proof that some 80 asylum seekers charged over the riots last year wouldn’t receive a fair trial on the island.
The treatment of asylum seekers has been a flashpoint in Australian politics for more than a decade, helping to decide the outcome of several closely fought elections. Mr. Abbott’s avowed tougher approach to asylum seekers played a major role in getting his Liberal-National coalition elected in early September.
While Australia receives only a small number of asylum seekers in global terms, the issue has come to dominate political conversation much more so than in comparable developed countries. Surveys repeatedly show a majority of voters to be deeply opposed to boat arrivals, while a much smaller number tend to protest against their treatment.
Write to Rob Taylor at rob.taylor@wsj.com

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