MELBOURNE: Australia will pay the small Pacific island of Nauru to resettle foreign-born criminals who the courts have ruled cannot be imprisoned indefinitely, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday. Nauru has become a political solution for the government after Australia’s High Court ruled in 2023 that non-citizens with no prospects of being resettled outside Australia could no longer be held indefinitely in immigration detention.

An agreement relating to the NZYQ cohort, who previously faced indefinite immigration detention, was signed by home affairs minister Tony Burke on Friday

The deal is set to affect more than 220 immigrants in Australia, including some convicted of serious crimes.