In August 2016, two thousand incident reports from Australia’s detention camp on Nauru
Island were published by the Guardian.
These so-called “Nauru Files” revealed detailed accounts of violence, child abuse,
self-harm, sexual assault and the otherwise brutal living conditions endured by refugees
and asylum seekers.
Following the publication, two United Nations agencies, as well as religious, medical, legal
and human rights groups demanded that the Australian government seek justice for the
alleged crimes.
So what exactly is going on inside the Nauru Regional Processing Center?
Well, to start, Australia has some of the strictest immigration policies in the world.
Under a controversial 2013 policy, refugees and asylum seekers attempting to enter the
country by boat are either automatically turned away, or sent to one of the country’s two
offshore detention centers, Nauru and Manus.
According to the Australian government, detainees stay on Nauru for an average of 15 months,
but reports by human rights groups report that many stay on the island for years.
Together the two detention centers actively hold nearly 1,300 people.
The Australian government recently announced plans to close Manus detention centre, but
did not specify where its roughly 800 detainees will go.
The reports leaked to the Guardian were compiled by guards, teachers, case workers and medical
officers of the Nauru Facility.
These documents, as well as other reports from human rights organizations, describe
“prison-like” living conditions, medical neglect, and regular, systematic assaults
by prison guards, locals and even other asylum seekers.
Specific incidents include a prison guard throwing rocks at a group of children, a young
boy being picked up and thrown, and even a young girl saying she’d been “cut from
under” by a male detainee.
Self-harm as an act of protest is a common theme.
One woman slit her wrists with a pencil, another young girl sewed her lips together, and was
then laughed at by a guard.
Shockingly, more than 50 percent of these incidents involved children, even though they
represented just 18 percent of detainees during the time of the reports.
But perhaps the most damning reveal was the Australian government’s failure to address
these allegations.
In 2015 in the aftermath of similar inquiries, officials promised to ensure that the “standard
of care” in their regional processing centers was “as high as it possibly can be”.
Its contracted security agency insisted that sexual assault allegations are addressed with
urgency.
However the documents suggest that serious reports of abuse and self-harm have only escalated.
Until the Nauru Files, little has been known about conditions in the detention centers.
Both islands are virtually shut off from the outside world; detainees are not allowed smartphones
or access to social media and all employees of the facilities are legally barred from
revealing any internal details.
Media access is also tightly controlled by the Nauru government; press visas are extremely
expensive and nearly all applications are denied.
In response to the Nauru Files, the Australian government has said the reports are uncorroborated,
unconfirmed, and are “not statements of proven fact” and instead held them up as
evidence of Nauru’s “rigorous reporting procedures”.
And although ‘rigorous’ may not be the most accurate description, these sorts of
reports are collected daily, leading many to suggest at the recent leaks are the tip
of a much, much larger iceberg.