Australia will pay the small Pacific island of Nauru to resettle foreign-born criminals who the courts have ruled cannot be imprisoned indefinitely, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday.

Nauru has become a political solution for the government after Australia’s High Court ruled in 2023 that non-citizens with no prospects of being resettled outside Australia could no longer be held indefinitely in immigration detention.

Albanese did not confirm media reports that Australia would pay the tiny Pacific Island nation, population 13,000, AU$400 million (US$262 million) to establish the deal, then AU$70 million ($46 million) annually to maintain it.