The Australian government is set to move all children now held in immigration detention on Nauru to Australia by the end of the year (2018).
George Brandis, the former attorney general and who is now the high commissioner to the UK, confirmed the plan in a radio interview in London early on Thursday morning.
“There are hardly any children on Nauru and in New Guinea and we expect that by the end of this year there will be none,” Brandis told LBC radio.
His comments follow reports in the Australian newspaper, which said it had been told that the remaining 40 children of asylum seekers still living on Nauru would be relocated to Australia by the end of the year.