Refugee advocates in Australia reported that 15 pregnant women would be sent to the Nauru detention camp on October 18, as the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) released alarming information about conditions in the camp.
Immigration minister Scott Morrison had earlier overseen the transfer to Nauru of two pregnant women — one seven months pregnant with twins. He said Nauru’s hospital had two delivery beds, six post-natal beds and a “special-care baby unit”.
RAC said on October 16 that tensions were rising to violent levels — including self-harm and beatings — in the island compound. Its statements are reprinted below.
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An Afghan asylum seeker detained in the main single-men’s compound on Nauru has slashed himself after Nauruan guards denied his requests to see a doctor.
The 27-year-old Afghan began suffering chest pains on his left side in the afternoon on October 14. Worried that he was suffering a heart attack, the man asked to see a doctor; but the Nauruan guard refused his request.
Other concerned asylum seekers also requested that the man be allowed to see a doctor, but were also refused.
Late that night, the man severely slashed his chest. He refused attention and bled for two-and-a-half hours before he was taken to the medical centre.
He was released from the medical centre into the detention centre the next day with extensive stitches and bandaging.
TENSIONS
About 150 asylum seekers have now been waiting in appalling conditions for up to seven months for the Nauruan government to give answers to their refugee claims.
Clashes between the Nauruan guards and asylum seekers in the overcrowded detention centre are becoming increasingly common. Yet asylum seekers report that complaints about the heavy-handedness of the guards are routinely ignored.
One asylum seeker told the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) that harassment by guards has become a daily feature of the detention centre. “We are forced to wait and queue for everything, guards tried to force people out of a queue for the phone or for meals to get identification, which is not necessary. If you refuse, you are bullied or threatened and sometimes guards punch the asylum seekers.”
RAC spokesperson Ian Rintoul said: “We welcome the announcement today that refugees will not be permanently confined to Nauru. But the Nauru and Australian governments are deliberately delaying the refugee assessments.
“Tensions are rising.”
LOCALS BANNED
A fight between asylum seekers and a Nauruan local on October 11 has resulted in all local Nauruan workers being banned from Bravo compound of the main detention centre on Nauru. Reports indicate that the Nauruan local who attacked the Lebanese detainee works for the Salvation Army.
The Lebanese detainee hit by the Salvation Army worker required stitches to a head injury. There are also more reports of self-harm, attempted suicides and individual hunger strikes in Bravo compound.
Bravo compound is a separate area of the main compound that holds about 70 people facing charges over the July 19 protests.
The fight came only two days after immigration minister Scott Morrison visited the detention centre.
Tensions have been increasing particularly in recent weeks driven by the overcrowding as more asylum seekers have been dumped in the makeshift tent camp.
There are long lines to use the limited number of toilets (there are now about 10 toilets for between 500 and 600 people; queues at meal times with waits up to an hour; lines for the strictly regulated four-minute showers. The condition of the toilets is appalling and there is an epidemic of skin problems, particularly on their feet, attributed to the filthy conditions.
Complaints about inadequate medical treatment are also growing. “They just can’t treat people,” one asylum seeker told the Refugee Action Coalition.
There are also reports of Nauruan detention workers being harassed by other locals hostile to the presence of the detention centre.