Nauru abolishes decades-old legal agreement with Australia, removing the Pacific island’s highest court of appeal.

Nauru has abolished a decades-old link to Australia’s legal system, removing the island nation’s highest court of appeal, in a move critics have described as “shocking” and “concerning” for human rights.

The government of Nauru – a Pacific island on which hundreds of asylum seekers are detained in an Australian immigration facility – said on Monday that no new judicial appeals to Australia’s High Court would be permitted under the now defunct 1976 High Court Appeals Act.

Julie Bishop, Australia’s foreign minister, confirmed on Monday that Nauru had informed government officials in December of its intention to scrap the 1976 appeals act.

“Australia supports Nauru’s sovereignty and its December 2017 decision to terminate the treaty in advance of the nation’s 50th anniversary of independence,” she said in a statement to reporters.

The agreement was formally terminated on March 12, according to Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, though news of the severence has only emerged in recent days after Nauru’s solicitor-general reportedly made comments on Friday concerning the act’s abolishment.

Critics have said the move could have adverse consequences for asylum seekers being detained on Nauru, who could be left without the right to appeal, and accuse Australia of exploiting the island’s decision for reasons of “political expediency”.

“Australia needs Nauru to solve its refugee problem, and as a consequence it is completely compromised by its desire not to offend the Nauruan government,” George Newhouse, a human rights lawyer for Australia’s National Justice Project, told Al Jazeera on Monday.

“[But] there are serious problems in the processing of asylum seeker reviews on Nauru … [and] these are life and death decisions because an asylum seeker that has their claim rejected could find themselves returned back to harm or even death,” he said.

Australia’s top court presided over at least 13 appeals from Nauru last year, according to Jeremy Gans, a professor of law at the University of Melbourne, Australia, having only decided on five cases from the Pacific island in the preceding 40 years of the act’s existence.

Australia’s asylum policy

Under its strict border control policies, Australia sends asylum seekers who arrive by boat to processing centres the government manages in the Pacific and permanently bans those individuals from settling in the country.

According to the Australian Border Force, 1,111 of those asylum seekers are detained on Nauru and Manus Island, part of Papua New Guinea.

Attempted suicide among asylum seekers is rife in Nauru because of the prison-like conditions they face in indefinite detention, an Amnesty International report released in 2016 said.

Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister, rejected the report, saying the government’s commitment to dealing with those detained was “compassionate and strong”.

Australia, Nauru’s largest aid donor, will provide it with $19m of “official development assistance” this year alone, according to Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

On Monday, Nauru’s government defended its decision to scrap the appeals act in a series of Twitter posts saying it will “not accept interference in our domestic affairs”.

“As a sovereign nation with a democratically (re) elected government, we will make decisions based on what is best for our people, not what ill-informed, racist, elitist, colonial-minded Australian lawyers, journalists and activists try and demand,” the government said via its Twitter account.

“Nauru’s justice system is independent and transparent, and our judges – all from outside Nauru – are highly respected.”

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