The Nauru President says advocates and activists have overstepped the line by telling refugees and asylum seekers to quit their jobs and become full-time protesters.
Baron Waqa issued a video message on the government website a day after the Australian immigration minister, Peter Dutton, blamed refugee advocates for two refugees setting fire to themselves in the past week.
RNZI reports one of them has since died.
Mr Waqa says refugees are not in detention but enjoy the same freedoms enjoyed by Nauruans, although refugees have better facilities than locals.
He says reports from support workers on the island suggest many employed refugee and asylum seekers are being instructed by activists to stay away from work.
Mr Waqa says there's a time when one must be realistic and accept the circumstances.
Access to Nauru is heavily restricted, with media representatives required to pay $US5000 as a non-refundable visa application fee.
New Zealand as well as Australian citizens also need a local sponsor, who risks jail if visa conditions are breached.
One foreign journalist, from the Australian, has been admitted since Nauru hiked the visa fee forty-fold two years ago. It is not known if that journalist was charged the visa application fee.