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Tents in Manus Island regional processing centre
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Offshore processing statistics

Offshore processing

What is offshore processing?

Since 13 August 2012, Australia has resumed sending people who came by boat to Australia seeking asylum to Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea under a policy of offshore processing. Since 19 July 2013, the Australian Government’s policy is that no one in this group will ever be resettled in Australia, even if they are recognised as refugees.

Australia’s offshore processing regime

How many people have been offshore? How many are still there? Where have they ended up? This page consolidates a range of offshore processing statistics, from official and unofficial sources.

If you are looking for statistics on people who have been transferred to Australia for medical treatment (including the ‘Medevac refugees’), you can go directly to this page.

Data on numbers in Nauru and resettlement to third countries is from 31 March 2023, unless otherwise specified. Statistics from the latest Budget estimates are from 31 December 2022.

Key figures

The graph shows what has happened to those sent to offshore processing.

However, the outcomes have been very different for those who were transferred to offshore processing before and after 19 July 2013. These two graphs show what has happened to these different groups.

Those who were transferred before 19 July 2013 are mostly still in Australia, living in the community.

In contrast, many of those transferred since 19 July 2013 have been either resettled to a third country or returned to their country or origin.

About the offshore processing statistics

This page collects data from a range of sources:

Sources and data

You can see the data and sources using the links under each chart, and you can also reuse the charts using Datawrapper River.

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