Government knew of abuse on Nauru months before it acted, staff to allege
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Version 0 of 1. Current and former workers on Nauru are preparing to tell a Senate inquiry that the government knew of allegations of sexual abuse and assault of asylum seekers in the island’s detention centre for months before it acted. Guardian Australia is aware of up to a dozen staff members who are preparing written submissions to the inquiry into immigration detention conditions on the Pacific island. Several staff have indicated they would be prepared, if asked, to give evidence in person before the committee. Previous whistleblowers who have revealed sensitive information about allegations of abuse or mistreatment on the island have been investigated by the Australian federal police at the request of the immigration department. Staff are bound by strict confidentiality clauses, and risk up to two years’ prison for speaking publicly about the detention centres, or their work within them. But information provided to a parliamentary inquiry falls under the Parliamentary Privileges Act, and people cannot be prosecuted for providing a submission or giving evidence. Staff have told Guardian Australia they can provide working documents, intelligence and incident reports, which demonstrate reports of physical and sexual abuse dating back to November 2013. The government has maintained it acted as soon as it was made aware of allegations of abuse and violence on Nauru. Releasing the Moss review this month, immigration minister Peter Dutton said: “I find the thought of anybody, in particular children, being sexually assaulted completely abhorrent. It’s not something that we would accept in Australia and it’s not something that the Nauruans accept in their community either. So I know that the Nauruan government takes this issue very seriously. I know that they will deal with matters in relation to this report.” A spokesman for the immigration department told Guardian Australia: “The Department of Immigration and Border Protection is aware of the Senate select committee into Nauru and will cooperate fully with all proceedings.” The government-commissioned Moss review found credible evidence of sexual and physical abuse of asylum seekers, including children, at the centre. They were backed up by more than 150 pages of leaked interviews with detention centre staff and detainees. The Senate committee will be chaired by Labor senator Alex Gallacher. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who moved the motion establishing the committee, will be deputy chair. Coalition senators Cory Bernardi and Linda Reynolds will be members, while crossbench senators Ricky Muir, Glenn Lazarus and Jaqui Lambie will be participating members. Submissions close on 27 April and the committee intends to report in June. Hanson-Young told the ABC she would like the committee to hold hearings in Nauru and in Darwin, where asylum seekers are sent to from the island if they require significant medical treatment. “I would like to take this inquiry to Nauru. I think it is really important, that would obviously need to be a matter for negotiation. If the Senate believes this is important enough then we should be able to go,” she said. The committee will have the power to subpoena immigration department staff, and senior managers from detention centre managers Transfield and security subcontractor Wilson’s, to answer questions and produce documents on the running of the centre. Following the Moss review and the Forgotten Children report into children in immigration detention by the Australian Human Rights Commission, pressure continues to build on the government over its asylum seeker policies. Liberty Victoria has launched an online campaign protesting against cuts made a year ago to legal assistance for asylum seekers making a refugee claim. Kon Karapanagiotidis from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said the funding cuts had created an almost insurmountable barrier to people accessing justice and a fair assessment of their refugee claim. “Assessing refugee claims can quite literally be the difference between life and death. Vulnerable people going through this process without lawyers compromises the integrity of the system and leads to poorer decision-making. It inevitably leads to people who are refugees not being recognised as such and being wrongfully returned to harm.” And a coalition of disability groups has released a joint statement calling for legislative changes to ensure asylum seekers with disabilities are not placed in mandatory detention. The government told Senate estimates there were 268 detainees with disabilities in onshore immigration detention facilities as at 30 September last year. Forty-nine of those were children. The minister’s office has been contacted for comment. On Monday night Julian Burnside QC launching a swingeing attack on Labor and Coalition policies as he delivered the Hal Wootten Lecture at the University of NSW. He said mandatory detention of boat-borne asylum seekers caused serious physical and mental harm, and that the temporary protection visas reintroduced in Decemberhad encouraged people to board boats run by people-smugglers, because they felt it was the only way they could be reunited with their families. “One of the most distressing things about the present situation is that it is based on a series of lies. When politicians called boat people ‘illegals’ and ‘queue jumpers’ they are not telling the truth. When politicians say that they are concerned about people drowning in their attempt to reach safety, they are not telling the truth,” he said. “Australia is now judged overseas by its behaviour as cruel and selfish. We treat frightened, innocent people as criminals. It is a profound injustice.” |