Mohammed Sagar
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Mohammed Sagar (born 1976) is a Shiite Muslim refugee from Najaf, Iraq, who has been detained on the island of Nauru since 2001.
In 2001 and 2002, 1,500 refugees from the Middle East and Afghanistan, seeking political asylum, tried to reach Australia in overloaded fishing boats. Intercepted by the Australian Navy, they were sent to Nauru and other Pacific islands under Australia's "Pacific Solution."
Since then, the other refugees have been repatriated, granted refugee status, or otherwise settled; in September 2006, the second-to-last of the refugees, Mohammed Faisal of Iraq, became suicidal and was evacuated to a hospital in Brisbane, Australia. Sagar, however, was judged both "a risk to national security" according to Australian intelligence, and a genuine refugee according to Australian immigration; he can therefore neither be sent back to Iraq nor accepted by Australia.
Additionally, Australian intelligence has declined to release the information used to judge Sagar a risk. Sagar is therefore unable to dispute the evidence in order to convince Australia or some other nation to accept him. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has also been unable to persuade any nation to grant him asylum.
Sagar has set up a website, Refugees Left on Nauru, to mark his five years in detention.
