ReliefWeb

The Government has confirmed that the country's Regional Processing Centre that houses asylum seekers will become an 'open centre' 24 hours per day, seven days per week from today.

The Department of Justice and Border Control explained that this meant that detention had ended, and all asylum seekers are now free to move around the island at their will.

Justice Minister David Adeang said the nation had been working towards this for a long time after already implementing a daytime open centre program, and had been waiting on confirmation of Australia's assistance in the transition.

Mr Adeang said the new arrangements are simply an expansion of the existing open centre program, which has been in effect for 12 hours per day.

"Nauruans should be proud that we have implemented a more compassionate approach to looking after asylum seekers, while at the same time ensured that refugees will be properly integrated into our country," he said.

The minister revealed that the Australian Government would be supporting Nauru with "safety, security and law enforcement", including providing more Australian police assistance.

To facilitate the new arrangements and ensure that asylum seekers are integrated into the community safely and cohesively, the Government has significantly increased the number of Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) from 135 to 320, which includes 30 refugees as settlement CLOs.

The Government has also announced a commitment to process all remaining refugee claims within the next week. Approximately 600 asylum seekers are still to be processed.

"The start of detention-free processing is a landmark day for Nauru," Mr Adeang proclaimed.