A young woman filmed the moment she 'accidentally broke into' an Australian immigration detention centre.
Travel blogger Chloe Jade visited the Micronesian island of Nauru, northwest of Papua New Guinea, with her friends on December 28.
The group decided to explore the island and were looking for an old Japanese prison from World War II when they were led to the gates of the Nauru Regional Processing Centre, Australia's offshore immigration detention facility.
As the car approached the gate, officials questioned the group before allowing them to drive through.
“I honestly can't believe they just opened the doors to us, asked us what was going on and let us in,” she said in a video shared on TikTok.
“This wasn't my intention when I came to Nauru to talk about this, but we happened to come through those gates so I felt like I had to talk about it.”
The travel blogger explained that they were asked if they had “camera gear” when they entered Nauru.
“Many journalists have tried to come to the island to report on the situation here,” Ms Jade said.
“It is said that conditions are bleak, and there are many human rights violations taking place here. Apparently they don't even issue media visas anymore.'
Social media users were shocked at how easily the woman gained access to the centre.
“Funny how they go to great lengths to keep journalists out, but let random people with phones through the gates,” one person wrote.
Others said the detention center had become a national shame.
'As an Australian, thank you for bringing this to our attention. No one talks about this anymore,” one person wrote.
A second added: 'An absolute disgrace to all of us Australians.'
The Nauruan government tightly controls media access to the island and the processing center.
The cost of a media visa was drastically increased in January 2014 from $200 to $8,000 – which was non-refundable if the visa was not granted.
A travel blogger has shared the moment she and her friend were accidentally admitted to Australia's immigration detention facility in Nauru
Since then, journalists from Al Jazeera, ABC, SBS and The Guardian have applied for media visas, but without success.
The Nauru Regional Processing Center is an Australian immigration detention facility that opened in 2001 under the Howard government's Peaceful Resolution.
The center suspended operations in 2008 to fulfill Kevin Rudd's election promise, but was reopened by the Gillard government in August 2012 until 2019 after a large increase in the number of asylum seekers traveling to Australia by boat.
The detention center reopened in September 2021 and is currently operating.
Current Coalition and Labor Party policy states that any detainees attempting to reach Australia by boat will never be settled in Australia, despite many of the asylum seekers held on the island being considered genuine refugees.
The center's highest population in August 2014 was 1,233 detainees, including children, and many were returned to their countries or relocated to the United States.
According to Amnesty International, Nauru has hosted more than 100 adult asylum seekers as of January 2025, the highest number of asylum seekers in more than a decade.
There are widespread reports that detainees suffered serious human rights violations during their stay at the facility.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture found in 2015 that the offshore detention center had systematically violated the International Convention against Torture.
Sam Klintworth, national director of Amnesty International Australia, said the policy continued despite public outcry and legal challenges.
“Offshore detention is a policy characterized by sheer cruelty, a dead end that has caused irreparable harm to countless people seeking safety,” Mr Klintworth said.
'For more than a decade, people seeking refuge in Australia have endured unimaginable suffering in Nauru, due to Australia's cruel offshore processing regime.'
'The United Nations ruling on the Australian detention regime off the coast comes as no surprise, but it nevertheless brings great shame.
“The government must immediately evacuate those held on Nauru and close the center permanently.
“It is time for Australia to meet its international obligations by immediately moving individuals to safety and providing safer, more humane routes to resettlement.”
