Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said the Australian government’s failure to address serious abuses appears to be “a deliberate policy to deter further asylum seekers from arriving in the country”.
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Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have released a report into conditions on Nauru, one of the island nations where Australia sends asylum seekers who arrive by boat for offshore processing and possible resettlement. “Many have dire mental health problems and suffer overwhelming despair – self-harm and suicide attempts are frequent”, it found.
“Refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru, most of whom have been held there for three years, routinely face neglect by health workers and other service providers who have been hired by the Australian government”, the report reads.
“Few other countries go to such lengths to deliberately inflict suffering on people seeking safety and freedom”, she said.
They said while refugees and asylum seekers remained on Nauru, Australia should ensure they receive quality medical and mental health care, and Nauru should allow independent human rights monitors and journalists access to the island, and Australia should do likewise for its “processing centres” for asylum seekers.
In February, the Australian High Court upheld the government’s right to hold the asylum seekers.
In their widespread allegations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused the country of violating basic human rights by forcibly transferring refugees to Nauru and detaining them for prolonged periods in inhuman conditions.
According to the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC), the report will be used as part of a global campaign to close the detention center.
The organisations claim Australian authorities are well aware of the abuses on Nauru. “The department strongly refutes numerous allegations in the report”.
A spokeswoman for Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection said it had not been consulted by Amnesty International regarding the report.
“They speak of children who have nightmares, who began to wet their beds, who began to stop interacting with other kids, stop playing, stop leaving their house, stop even talking”, he told RNZ. At the same time, it has rejected an offer from New Zealand that would have afforded many people languishing in uncertainty on Nauru, a real opportunity to move forward with their lives. “We are dead souls in living bodies”, an asylum seeker told the researchers. “We don’t have any hope or motivation”, one woman said.
“We chose Australia because at least we thought it’s a first world country and it supports women and children’s rights but I think we were just wrong”.
The report stated that every refugee and asylum seeker interviewed reported intimidation, harassment, or violence directed at them or family members by Nauruans acting alone or in groups. In the same month a government appointed reviewer found that refugees on Nauru have been the victims of rape and sexual assault. In March previous year a Senate committee heard evidence detailing the harmful conditions asylum seekers experience while living in offshore immigration detention.
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As of the end of June, Australia government records say that 442 people were in detention on Nauru, including a number of children, from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, among other places.
