A huge dossier of purported documents from an Australian detention center has been leaked, and appears to paint a chilling picture of the systemic abuse of asylum seekers – particularly women and children – at the facility.
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But leaked documents published by the Guardian Australia detail again the level of abuse at Nauru, one of two run by Australia on neighboring South Pacific island nations and show once more that children bear the brunt of the trauma. More than half of them concern children.
One document from December 2014 discusses a painting by a child asylum seeker that depicts “violence/intense sexual activity including the representation of a penis” and stated that children had seen Nauruan guards pull their trousers down and having sex.
Australia said it was seeking to confirm that all reports had been dealt with by Nauru police.
The reports range from a guard allegedly grabbing a boy and threatening to kill him once he is living in the community to guards allegedly slapping children in the face.
“These most vulnerable children have been placed in singularly risky and shameful environments in Nauru”.
The leaks also detail cases of self-harm such as in March past year when a medical staffer witnessed an asylum seeker swallowing rocks. Another was about a child under the age of 10 who allegedly “undressed and invited a group of adults to insert their fingers into her vagina”.
Most of the information contained in the leaked documents is already out there.
“Nauru is no place for vulnerable children and continuing to leave them to languish there is doing significant harm”, spokesman Mat Tinkler said in a statement.
Amnesty International said the leak laid bare “a system of routine dysfunction and cruelty”.
Willey said seeing children deteriorate over time was one of the worst aspects of her work. “Save the Children has told the government through various channels of these incidents and the broader conditions and problems on Nauru over several years”.
“But while we are surprised to see our incident reporting in the media, we are not surprised about the contents”. And it should restart negotiations with neighbouring governments to establish a regional protection framework for asylum seekers.
Human rights groups said the leaked reports highlighted an urgent need to end Australia’s offshore detention policy and that asylum seekers must be given medical and psychological support.
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“Here we see report after report of the most terrible and disgusting abuse”, she said, adding the situation was worse than previously thought.
