Nauru sex assault allegations not reported to workplace watchdog
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Version 0 of 1. Australia’s immigration department did not notify the federal workplace watchdog of serious allegations of sexual assault at the Nauru detention centre in what appears to be a contravention of its own reporting guidelines. A Senate inquiry into serious allegations of assault and abuse at the Nauru centre is set to get under way on Tuesday with public hearings. Submissions to the inquiry have revealed serious concerns about the wellbeing of asylum seekers on the island, with claims that pregnant women have been forced to create makeshift toilets and are afraid of going to the bathroom at night because of fears for their safety. The immigration department’s guidelines on what matters the workplace authority Comcare must be notified of include sexual assaults and serious assaults in detention centres. But in Comcare incident logs obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws, no incidents of sexual assault have been reported in the past 18 months, despite a series of reports that were made internally to the immigration department. The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said: “The department must come clean over why serious incidents like sexual assault have not been reported to Comcare as required. “The more we learn about the abuse inside the Nauru camp the more we discover just how far the government has gone to cover up what’s been going on and what the minister knew and chose to ignore. “The institutionalised secrecy and cover up has allowed a culture of abuse to fester, and worse it has left those children and young women who are victims of assault locked up unable to escape their abusers.” In one such incident in November 2013, a report provided to the immigration department by detention contractor Transfield outlined serious allegations that a cleaner had sexually assaulted a young asylum seeker. Transfield said at the time the report was only an allegation, but the report contained an admission from the cleaner that his hand had come into contact with the child’s genitals. The incident is not listed in the Comcare files. The logs, which cover mainland and offshore centres, reveal the immigration department only reported a handful of incidents to Comcare, including a suitcase falling on to a worker, an electric shock from a phone, inhaling powder from a fire extinguisher and a worker being sprayed with raw sewage. Related: Nauru detention centre: life inside the asylum seeker compound – in pictures Some of these events did spark inspection reports by Comcare at the detention centre, but all these inspections identified no issues that required enforcement activity from the agency. Comcare also undertook one proactive inspection in October 2014, records of which were obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws. During the visit the Comcare officer said they were “satisfied that IDBP are ensuring, as far as reasonably practical, the health and safety of workers at NRPC”. They suggested some improvements surrounding bathroom facilities, mould treatment, safety issues at staff accommodation and providing information to staff about the “health impacts, if any, as a result of being geographically located near phosphate mining activity”. A spokesman for Comcare said that in 2014 one allegation of sexual assault was referred in late 2014, but confirmed they were not notified of the November 2013 incident. “The incident you have outlined was not referred to Comcare and was not included in your FOI response on that basis,” he said. “An alleged sexual assault at the Nauru detention centre was referred to Comcare by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection in late 2014, but it was not a notifiable incident under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011”. Over the past 18 months there have been repeated concerns raised about serious sexual assaults at the detention centre. A review conducted by former integrity commissioner Philip Moss substantiated some of these sexual assault allegations. The immigration department, Transfield Services, Wilson Security and Save the Children are set to appear before the Senate inquiry on Tuesday. |