Population figures
Total country population
12,884
Forcibly displaced population
Refugees (under UNHCR's mandate):
0
Asylum-seekers:
97
IDPs (of concern to UNHCR):
0
Other people in need of international protection:
0
Other
Statelessness persons
0
Host community
0
Others of concern to UNHCR
0
Country context
The Republic of Nauru is an island State in the central Pacific Ocean, located south of the equator and east of Papua New Guinea, with Kiribati to the northeast and the Solomon Islands to the southeast. As an archipelagic State without land borders, all movements of persons occur by sea or air. Asylum seekers transferred under a Memorandum of Understanding with Australia are accommodated in a Regional Processing Centre, where they undergo RSD. There are no refugee camps or settlements outside that facility; recognised refugees and pending applicants reside at the Centre and, upon determination, may be relocated to third countries under separate arrangements.
Nauru ratified the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol on 17 June 2011. These instruments are given domestic effect through the Refugees Convention Act 2012, which establishes a formal procedure for refugee status determination (“RSD”) and incorporates the principle of non-refoulement in section 4 of the Act. Under that Act, any person in Nauru may apply to the Secretary for Justice and Border Control to be recognised as a refugee, with Refugee Status Determination Officers assessing claims in accordance with the Convention and its Protocol. The Refugees Convention Act 2012 is complemented by the Immigration Act 2014, which regulates entry, stay and removal of non-citizens. Amendments in 2016 to the Immigration Act provide that no person with a pending application under the Refugees Convention Act 2012 or related appeals may be removed until all proceedings are finally determined (Immigration Act 2014).
...Nauru is not a party to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, and no domestic legislation establishes a formal mechanism for identifying or protecting stateless persons. Consequently, statelessness prevention and reduction relies on the scope of the Citizenship Act 2017, rather than on a standalone determination process. The Naoero Citizenship Act 2017 provides for citizenship by birth (where at least one parent is a citizen), by descent, by adoption, by marriage, and through a special grant on the fiftieth anniversary of independence. The Act explicitly permits dual citizenship (section 16) and includes a provision allowing the Minister, in consultation with Cabinet, to grant citizenship to persons born aboard Nauruan vessels or aircraft who would otherwise be stateless. Registration of citizenship status is maintained in a central Register, overseen by the Secretary for Justice, with no appeal permitted against decisions of grant or refusal. There is, however, no dedicated statelessness determination procedure; foundlings and other persons lacking documentation must rely on general citizenship provisions or ad hoc executive discretion.
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