NAURU DETENTION CENTRE
The
detention centre on Nauru was opened in 2001 as part of the Pacific Solution.
It was closed in 2007 but re-opened in 2012 by the then Gillard Labor Government
with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU) with Nauru. On 3 August 2013, Australia and
Nauru entered into a new MOU to regulate the transfer and assessment of asylum
seekers in Nauru . The MOU supersedes the 2012 agreement between Australia and
Nauru . Current Australian Government policy includes the resettlement of
people found to be refugees on Nauru on temporary protection visas, before they
are offered permanent resettlement in Cambodia. No asylum seekers sent to Nauru
who are found to be refugees will ever be settled in Australia.
As of 31 March 2015, there are 718 people in
the Nauru detention centre which includes children, women and men. Conditions
in the Centre Nauru lacks the infrastructure to ensure adequate processing and
resettlement arrangements for asylum seekers. The UNHCR has stated that the
centre lacks a “durable solution for refugees” and “does not provide safe and
humane conditions of treatment in detention.” Indeed, the former head of the
detention health provider IHMS has stated that treatment of asylum seekers on
Nauru is ‘akin to torture.’ The independent Moss Report released in March 2015
revealed reports of rape within the centre, and numerous “reported and
unreported allegations of sexual and other physical assault” of both minors and
adults. Former psychiatrists and social workers who worked on Nauru have since
released an open letter stating that the Australian Government was aware of
cases of sexual assault against women and children for 17 months but failed to
act. The signatories have called for a Royal Commission into the abuse, and the
immediate transfer of all asylum seekers to Australia from Nauru to ensure
their safety.
The centre’s conditions are especially harmful
to children, as the Australian Human Rights Commission found in their 2014
inquiry into children in detention. The Commission states that “children
detained indefinitely on Nauru are suffering from extreme levels of physical,
emotional, psychological and developmental distress.” It found that Australia’s
transfer of children to Nauru is in breach of several articles of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children in detention are at high risk
of mental illness and self-harm, and do not have access to adequate education
and recreational facilities.
Published by
the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
Last updated: April 2015
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