A 17-year-old boy is among a group detained inside the regional processing centre on the remote pacific island of Nauru.

He is one of 11 people, all Tamil speakers, who were taken to Nauru on September 7 under the offshore processing system set up by Australia.

These are the first people transferred to Nauru since 2014.

One of the adult men in the group made a serious self-harm attempt last week, the ABC has learned.

The teenager’s mother is also in the group.

The Department of Home Affairs declined to provide details of the cohort, due to privacy reasons.

“The Government of Nauru is responsible for the implementation of regional processing arrangements in Nauru, including the management of individuals under those arrangements,” a spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neill also declined to comment and referred the ABC to what officials from the department said at Senate estimates this week.

Government officials confirmed at Estimates that the group had been intercepted and transferred to Nauru, but would not reveal their country of origin.

Rear Admiral Justin Jones, commander of Operation Sovereign Borders, told Estimates the boat was not turned back because “in this case, we were not able to safely or lawfully conduct a turn-back or a take-back”.

“Therefore, those personnel have been transferred to Nauru for regional processing by the government of Nauru, in accordance with longstanding Operation Sovereign Borders policies,” he said.

Ogy Simic, director of advocacy at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said the organisation had not been able to establish any contact with the people recently sent to Nauru.

“We are urgently seeking to establish if they are receiving independent legal support, health, and support services,” Simic said.

In recent years, the Nauru Processing Centre has been wound back, as refugees and asylum seekers held on the island were resettled in other countries or brought to Australia.

In 2021, the Australian government signed a new “enduring regional processing capability” with the Republic of Nauru. Asylum seekers sent to the island nation by Australia are to be managed by the government of Nauru, which continues to host the processing centre.

Australia continues to play a role in the processing centre. Private prison operator MTC won the Australian government’s $350 million contract to run garrison services at the largely-empty centre until September 2025.

By July 2023, only two men who arrived since the centre was last reopened in 2012 remained on the island.