Where do they come from?
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By far the largest number of people sent to Nauru or PNG have been from Iran. The second-largest group of people are stateless. There are also significant numbers of people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Iraq.
Unlike onshore detention, there is no regular reporting on nationalities of those in offshore facilities. The statistics are occasionally revealed in response to Senate questions on notice.
This graph shows the number of people recognised as refugees by key nationalities, by year and place.
However, that graph only includes those recognised as refugees and select nationalities. The graphs below provides the most recent statistics on the number of people in Nauru and PNG by nationality. The first graph shows those on Nauru by nationality and refugee status as at 31 January 2022. As the Department no longer provides information on people in PNG since 31 December 2021 (when its arrangement with PNG ended), the second graph shows those on PNG by nationality as at 31 August 2021 (the last publicly available date).
