The company responsible for housing asylum seekers on Nauru has launched an urgent hiring spree just days after a new ship full of migrants landed in northern Australia.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal that Nauru detention center managers, Management and Training Corporation, on Monday published a series of adverts for people who can “work and live in a warm tropical environment on Nauru”.
The job adverts – for a single accommodation manager and several welfare and security officers – were published simultaneously on Seek, causing uproar among the opposition and concern that the government is preparing for a wave of asylum seekers.
The wave of mass publicity comes three days after foreign nationals claiming to be from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh were found wandering the remote community of Beagle Bay in Western Australia after somehow crossing the country’s border.
All three jobs are listed as being located in Brisbane, but the fine print indicates that they require successful applicants to be willing to relocate to Nauru.
The arrival of the men has reignited debate over asylum seekers and the Albanian government’s ability to position itself as “tough on borders” national leaders.
The 39 men found in Western Australia were deported to Nauru, the small island nation northeast of Australia where the federal government often detains asylum seekers.
Opposition immigration spokesman James Paterson told Daily Mail Australia that “it is not surprising that (the Albanian government) is having to expand extraterritorial processing.”
“Anthony Albanese says he has our borders under control, but at the same time the government is secretly preparing a huge wave of illegal boat arrivals to be transferred to Nauru,” Senator Paterson said.
“It is only necessary because people smugglers are denouncing the Prime Minister’s weakness on border security.”
The offices of Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil dismissed questions about the hiring spree.
The ship’s arrival has reignited debate over the government’s immigration policies.
It is the issue that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been most interested in talking about: the Prime Minister’s apparent “weak leadership” on the issue.
“It is a weak Prime Minister who is being tested by people smugglers… he is not telling the truth… this is not Operation Sovereign Borders as we knew it when the Coalition was in power,” said Mr Dutton on the ship’s arrival earlier this year. week.
“It’s all that layer upon layer of weakness shown by the government, that’s what emboldens human traffickers and what encourages people to pay their money and get on the boat.”
Albanese has maintained that his government supports Operation Sovereign Borders
All job ads were posted on Seek on Monday, just three days after foreign nationals claiming to be from Pakistan and Bangladesh were found wandering aimlessly in the remote community of Beagle Bay in Western Australia.
In June of last year, The Guardian reported that the government had facilitated a flow of regular transfers out of Nauru, and that the government intended to expel all asylum seekers by the end of that month.
But in October there were reports that a group of up to 11 asylum seekers had been intercepted and transferred to Nauru.
What Nauru looks for in a worker
The successful candidate for the Housing Manager position will be responsible for “maintaining a productive working relationship with transferees” and “overseeing their safety and well-being.”
Meanwhile, security officers (who appear to have multiple roles available) are responsible for “raising the alarm and calling for backup if necessary.”
They are also expected to patrol the facilities and monitor surveillance equipment as part of their daily duties. Previous experience working in immigration security is a “desirable” skill.
Meanwhile, the multiple welfare officer jobs on offer are six-month contracts, with four weeks on and four weeks off.
“Due to short hiring timelines, only applications from those who meet all requirements will be considered,” the job advertisement states.
Successful candidates will have experience “working with complex clients,” understand “trauma-informed practice,” and have a “high level of emotional intelligence and resilience.”
The company is also looking for a candidate who can work “cross-culturally”, with the ability to “identify risks and provide early intervention strategies”.
“MTC Australia regularly advertises positions to ensure we can meet our operational requirements,” a company spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
“The three positions currently advertised are intended to replace vacancies in existing positions.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has spent days sounding the alarm about people traffickers taking advantage of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s apparent “weak leadership” on the issue.
Anthony Albanese’s version of the story
Albanese has maintained that his government supports Operation Sovereign Borders, the federal government’s code name for the effort to intercept asylum-seeker boats at sea.
The Prime Minister said last week that his government’s “position on Operation Sovereign Borders is very clear” and that no one who arrives illegally in Australia by boat will “settle here”.
Operation Sovereign Borders was created by the Abbott Government in 2013 to curb the number of illegal immigrants seeking asylum in Australia by boat.
“It’s the same system that worked before, and we will make announcements about what has happened there through Operation Sovereign Borders, imminently, when that happens,” Mr. Albanese said.
No boat has been found in the area where the men were, raising questions about whether they were left by Indonesian fishermen.
One of the asylum seekers told the ABC they had spent five days at sea, traveling from Indonesia to Australia.
After dropping them off at the beach, the group walked about 35 kilometers, he said, before being picked up by local members of a remote indigenous community.