On Saturday night, the final refugee imprisoned by Australia on Nauru was flown into Brisbane, ending at least temporarily more than a decade of offshore processing on the Pacific island.

The Australian government claims that, as a matter of policy, it is still committed to offshore processing. It spends $350 million a year maintaining an offshore detention facility on the island, which it claims is prepared to welcome and deal with any additional unauthorized maritime arrivals.

Human rights and refugee advocacy groups have welcomed the termination of offshore processing on Nauru, but many of those detained, they claim, experienced irreparable harm while being held there indefinitely.

Betelhem Tibebu, a human rights advocate and refugee who was previously detained on Nauru said, "This week, all my friends are so happy." No more friends must die, no one must fall ill, no trauma and no dread must exist.Nauru is the pit of hell where we disappeared. We were emotionally and psychologically broken down.

In September 2012, Australia's second round of offshore processing on Nauru got underway. In August 2014, there were 1,233 refugees and asylum seekers being kept on the island.

The last few migrants were evacuated from the island on a few aircraft over the previous month. Two asylum seekers who are now on the island are still being prosecuted at home.

Still detained in PNG are 80 refugees and asylum seekers, most of whom are in Port Moresby.

Since offshore detention was reinstated in 2012, at least 14 individuals have passed away there, including those who were killed by guards, suffered medical negligence, and committed suicide.

Tibebu claimed that many of the refugees who had left Nauru in recent months and years had continued to live in constant fear of being forcibly brought back.

We are informed that we could be sent back to Nauru every six months when we renew our visa. I can never get a good night's sleep because I constantly worry that they'll take us all back in the middle of the night. I'm glad nobody is there right now.

The offshore detention practices of Australia in Nauru, according to Refugee Action Coalition spokesperson Ian Rintoul, will eternally tarnish the reputations of both major parties in Australian politics.

Refugees who were deported to Nauru wasted ten years of their lives while committing no crimes.

The sad chapter of offshore detention won't be totally finished as long as Nauru is still operational and refugees are still stuck in PNG. The final refugees may have left Nauru, but there are still over 80 refugees in PNG who require a safe evacuation.

One chapter of suffering has ended, according to Jana Favero, director of advocacy at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, who also applauded the government's decision to evacuate the remaining refugees and asylum seekers.

Our government has watched while abuse, violence, neglect, harm, and suffering have occurred in offshore detention over the last ten years. Men, women, and children looked for shelter and protection, but we exiled them for no other reason than political expediency.

The 80 refugees and asylum seekers still detained in PNG, according to Favero, must also be released from the uncertainty of offshore processing.

In Senate estimates published last month, the government affirmed that it would continue to pay $350 million as a "contingency" for the island's "enduring" offshore capabilities. A three-year contract for "garrison and welfare" services is held by the infamous US private prisons operator MTC, which has a history of managing detention facilities.

A spokesperson for Australia's Department of Home Affairs said that the country's border policies had not changed before the island was evacuated and that the Nauru processing centre was ready to receive and handle any new unauthorised maritime arrivals, making the country's response to people-smuggling more robust in the future.