The Finks Bikie Gang Is Providing Security for Noncitizens Detained on Nauru

Former Australian Army rifleman Oisin Donohoe publicly revealed on 8 November 2025, that on being recruited to be part of a privately-run security operation that launched last week on the island of Nauru and is charged with providing security in respect of a cohort of “unlawful noncitizens”, he learnt that his new employers would actually be members of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang.

Donohoe was clear in blowing the whistle to The Age in a report last Saturday that the revelations about his experiences with labour-hire company Safe Hands Group were being provided to the masthead only after he’d tried to garner the interest of Labor ministers, opposition MPs and some crossbenchers in Canberra to only secure one response from Senator Jacqui Lambie.

The Age first reported on Finks outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCG) links to a security operation in Nauru in August 2025. Safe Hands is headed by Finks OMCG global leader Ali Bilal. Since February this year, Safe Hands has been in consultations with Nauru Community Security, which provides escort to the Nauru Regional Processing Centre on the island, along with overseeing community safety.

Having gained more attention than the earlier reports, last weekend’s Nauru revelations come on the back of the legislative onslaught that the Albanese government jammed through parliament in September, which served to strip noncitizens of their right to natural justice and has, ultimately, streamlined the deportation and dehumanisation of these people.

The laws were the second refugee rights-stripping measures Labor had passed in 10 months, and they came alongside a September struck-deal that sees our nation paying the Nauruan government $2.5 billion to resettle a group of unlawful noncitizens on the island for the period of 30 years, with some of this funding going towards paying for Finks-run security.

Nothing to see here

The 2023 High Court case NZYQ led to at least 358 immigration detainees who were being held indefinitely being released into the community. These detainees are either refugees and asylum seekers who cannot be returned to their countries of origin due to this nation’s international nonrefoulement obligations, or nonreturn to harm, or otherwise they are stateless people.

Many of these detainees had had their visas cancelled due to past criminal records or on character grounds. Although despite most of these people having lived in the Australian community since late 2023, the government continues to argue that they’re too dangerous to live amongst us and, therefore, they must be deported to live amongst poor people on their island.

The $2.5 billion deal was signed by the home affairs minister and Nauruan president David Adeang on 29 August, and it was only announced after Tony Burke had flown to the island and secured it. The deal involves an initial $408 million dollar outlay, with an additional $70 million payment to be made annually for the 30-year duration. This money will ultimately fund Finks security.

Australian governments first started dumping noncitizens on Nauru in 2001, and this, the Coalition’s Pacific Solution, ended in 2008. Then Labor began sending people arriving by boat to Nauru in 2012, which was a major period of detention marked by grave human rights abuses. In February 2023, the final detainee was deported. However, detentions then recommenced seven months later.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre reported a fortnight ago that the first NZYQ noncitizen had been sent to Nauru under the new deal. The Australian Border Force has been conducting late night raids on places where asylum seekers have been residing. The ASRC considers this behaviour comparable to the ICE raids on undocumented migrants in the United States under the Trump administration.

The ASRC further notes that the government is deporting these people using immigration laws that provide for the automatic deportation of noncitizens sentenced to at least 12 months prison time, including in an accumulatory manner, and it underscores that they’re receiving double punishment as they’ve served their time in prison. In similar circumstances citizens return to the community.

“Business deals in parking lots”

Out of the blue in August, a bill amending the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) appeared in parliament. It served to strip noncitizens of the right to procedural fairness, which means the government doesn’t have to give noncitizens any prior warning of deportation or any right to appeal it, which is coupled with a late 2024 law that results in prison time for those refusing to assist in their deportation.

There are around 100 asylum seekers being held on Nauru. The first group of Finks-linked security officers are on the island. Three of the NZYQ cohort were sent to Nauru in February this year, and more are currently set to arrive. Some NZYQ noncitizens have serious criminal offences on their records, while others don’t. It’s uncertain how many are currently being transferred to the island.

The unexpected laws and secretive deals cut with the poor island nation that’s gaining its “long-term economic resilience” via the deal, have been described as Trumpian. The White House under president Trump has been pressuring this nation to shift towards its authoritarian outlook. The US administration has launched a full-scale disappearing operation against undocumented migrants.

Home affairs has reported that it has no contracts with Safe Hands and, therefore, the Nauru refugee deal and the Nauru security arrangements are unlinked. Yet, what does link them is Australian taxpayer dollars. The cash that Australia gives to Nauru to accommodate the noncitizens is eventually being used by the Nauruan government to hire corporate entities who then pay the Finks.

In her 2022 tome One Nation Under Blackmail, Whitney Webb describes the advantageous relationship that early post-World War II US intelligence services struck up with organised crime once they realised the intel that crooks possess. The US journalist outlines that this intermingling that continues to the present day, results in US spy agencies operating as organised crime.

So, as the Albanese government turns a blind eye to outlaw motorcycle gang involvement in monitoring noncitizens stripped of their rights in someone else’s country, this may not be the first time corruption and human rights abuses on Nauru have been raised, but it’s certainly the first time this has happened while Canberra is in league with the openly criminal Trump administration.