Australia claims media trivialized Nauru abuse claims

By Jill Fraser

MELBOURNE, Australia (AA) -- Australia's immigration minister has condemned two media organizations for their reporting of conditions in Australia’s immigration processing center on the Pacific island of Nauru, accusing the Guardian and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation of trivializing refugee abuse claims.

Referring to 2100 reports of alleged violence against asylum seekers and refugees -- purportedly 50 percent on children -- leaked by the Guardian last week, Peter Dutton told ABC radio on Thursday morning that Australia was doing everything it could for those detained on Nauru as a consequence of Australia’s immigration policy.

“I'm not going to be defamed by the Guardian and by the ABC because we are doing everything within our power to provide support for people,” he said

Stating that he abhors violence and takes all claims of violence seriously, Dutton said the Guardian and the ABC were trying to promote all the 2,100 reports as serious “when they're not”.

“Many of those reports relate to corporal punishment by children by their own parents. They report about some minor assaults by detainees on detainees, refugees on refugees,” Dutton maintained.

The immigration minister then took aim at Save the Children accusing it of leaking the 21000 reports.

Save the Children has adamantly denied the accusation.

In a statement issued Thursday following Dutton’s comments the children’s rights agency said Dutton’s claims on the ABC “are false”.

Later Thursday, during an interview on Sydney radio, Dutton addressed Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court forcing the forced closure of Australia’s offshore processing center on Manus Island.

He said the more than 800 refugees who have been detained on Manus will be permanently blocked from coming to Australia, leaving them with the options of being repatriated or settling in Papua New Guinea.

Dutton said he will ask Labor to support changes to the Migration Act to make sure any refugees resettled from the centre on Manus will never be able to settle in Australia.

“I have made it clear that even if people are granted citizenship elsewhere then they are not then coming to Australia,” Dutton said.

Aid groups have questioned the legality of this proposal.

Speaking on the ABC on Thursday night, the CEO of the Australian Council for International Development, Marc Purcell, expressed alarm at Dutton’s words.

He said “freedom on movement is a fundamental right for everybody in the world and any government that tries to restrict it would look more like North Korea than a democracy like Australia”.