Ex-Australia gov't advisor on refugees implores amnesty

By Jill Fraser

MELBOURNE, Australia (AA) - A United Nations report has found that refugee and asylum seeker children detained by the Australian government on the island of Nauru are being exposed to “inhuman and degrading treatment,” and are at risk of suicide.

The 17-page report -- released late Friday by the UN's Committee on the Rights of the Child -- details "life-threatening conditions", including “physical, psychological and sexual abuse against asylum seeking and refugee children” on Nauru.

On Saturday, the former chair of Australia's Immigration Health Advisory Group called the document the latest in a long line of reports and probes that reveal “huge systemic problems” relating to Australia’s offshore processing refugee policy.

The relocating of asylum seekers trying to reach Australia by boat to Nauru and Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been severely criticized by human rights groups.

Louise Newman underlined to Anadolu Agency that Nauru has “made public statements that they don’t want to resettle refugees” and the Australian government -- which “has had years to look at resettlement issues” -- has failed to find a successful solution.

“So we’ve got genuine refugees in limbo in places that don’t want them,” she said, adding that it’s a situation that urgently needs to be addressed.

Friday's UN report slammed the Nauru government's treatment of asylum seeker and refugee children, and stated that the agreement between the Australian and Nauruan governments omitted to take into account their welfare.

Newman -- a professor of psychiatry -- called on the Australian government “to grant an amnesty to the people and give up the pretense that they [the government] can fix things”.

“It’s unfixable,” she said. “It’s too dangerous and inhumane to the people. They should be brought to the mainland for appropriate processing.

“At the moment we’re at a stage of virtual impasse with increasing reports saying this is damaging to people, particularly children, is unacceptable."

Newman says it's about time that the government admits that Nauru and Manus have failed, and recognize that the damage done has far outweighed the benefits.

"There’s no evidence that tormenting these people has had any impact on the slowing of boats," she says. "So the time has come to give up and not waste more money on trying to patch up a failed policy.”

To date the Australian government has been unwavering in its assertion that none of the refugees on Nauru or Manus Island in PNG will ever be resettled on mainland Australia.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has said that at the end of August there were 410 people in Australian immigration detention in Nauru, of which 306 were men, 55 women and 49 children.

There have been two self-immolations by asylum seekers on Nauru, one of which led to the death of a 23-year-old man, and many reported incidents of self-harm.