© www.aljazeera.comLiving under psychological and physical abuse, refugees suffer conditions worse than criminals, especially the children.
The realities of Australia's controversial method of dealing with refugees has been exposed in 8,000 pages of leaked documents that reveal systematic child abuse on Australia's offshore detention island Nauru.The
Guardian received the
leak from inside the detention system which exposes
more than 2,000 reports detailing assault, sexual abuse, self harm and unfit living conditions, half of which concern children. It provides a damning case against the Australian government for failing to act on previous reports or to properly care for those under its detention.
While a 2015 investigation by the Australian Senate into the Nauru detention center revealed worrying conditions for refugees, including incidents of sexual assault and self-harm, new revelations provide a greater scale to the problems at the offshore site.
The leaks reveal 1,086 incidents involving children, who make up only 18 percent of Nauru's 442 detainees. There are 59 reports of assault on children within the files.Perhaps the most chilling reports come from incidents of
children acting abnormally, likely as a result of trauma and their internment. One girl sewed her mouth shut, and a guard reacted by laughing. Another girl pointed to her vagina and said a male detainee "cut her from under."
Thirty cases of self-harm in children were reported, and over 150 cases of threatened self-harm in children.
© www.digitaljournal
In one incident, a teacher reported that
a girl requested increased shower times. "Her request has been accepted on condition of sexual favours. It is a male security person. She did not state if this has or hasn't occurred. The security officer wants to view a boy or girl having a shower," the report reads.
The revelations coincide with the findings of the Australian Senate which revealed a number of
attempted suicides and incidents of children self-harming. It also described
overcrowding and unhygienic conditions in Nauru, with cases of typhoid and TB reported. Impetigo and lice along with vermin and insects have spread around the island.
Australia's second detention island, Manus, holds more than 800 men. It too has seen controversy, with detainees reporting abuse and neglect.
Australia's Christmas Island also houses refugees and has seen riots, fires and hunger strikes by refugees attempting to protest conditions.
The three islands are difficult to access, and are known to be uninviting to reporters.
Doctors working in immigration centers challenged the Australian government's
Border Force Act in July, due to Section 42, which
prevents "unauthorized disclosure" about camp conditions. Violators can face two years in prison if they break the rule. "Doctors are obliged to put their patient's interests above all other interests and to advocate for public health," Dr. Barri Phatafod said. "No one should expect any less from their doctor, or from the medical profession as a whole."
A spokesperson from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection responded to the Nauru leak, telling the
Guardian: "Alleged incidents within the regional processing centre are investigated and where appropriate referred to the Nauru police force (NPF) for investigation. Refugees living in the community are encouraged to report all incidents of assault to the NPF."
"The Australian federal police has deployed officers to work alongside the NPF and build their capacity to investigate complex and sensitive incidents. Australia provides comprehensive medical support services to the regional processing centre in Nauru and to the Nauruan government health facilities."
Maybe this 'abuse' is systemic and planned? This seems to be a pattern in govts aligned with British traditions, such as:
Rotherham Abuse Scandal: Horrific reality of ‘industrial scale’ child grooming revealed
[...]They all told us how police and the local council is still “failing” thousands of vulnerable girls.
It reveals how organised, criminal gangs of paedophiles are still using the town as their own personal fiefdom, peddling underage girls for sex as part of a multi-million pound crime empire.
[...]
Today an investigation by this website lifts the lid on the shocking scale of abuse still going on in Rotherham, two years after a landmark report into the scandal ruled police and council workers had ignored the issue for fear of being branded racist.
Professor Alexis Jay’s astonishing probe revealed at least 1,400 girls were groomed by sex gangs between 1997 and 2013, and unearthed a series of scandalous failings by local authorities.
[...]
A number of people who gave evidence to Professor Drew’s inquiry expressed open dismay at his findings and told us the grooming of girls is as bad now as it has ever been.
And many have told Express.co.uk of their outright anger the police and local council workers have not done more to crack down on the grooming gangs.
One victim, who we have called Ellie to protect her identity, said: “Raping of white girls by these men is still going on. Some, I know, have had to wait months before they’re even asked to give a statement [to the police]. It’s shockingly bad still.”
[...]“Nothing has changed, not in the slightest. It’s still the same scale as before.”
Lizzie’s was one of a number of testimonies Express.co.uk heard detailing how abuse is going on in plain sight, with victims, campaigners and neighbours all able to direct this website to the areas where the grooming gangs operate freely in the terraced streets.
[...]
A third victim said: “It’s just as bad as it was before because they just don’t care – they don’t want to tackle it.”
In shocking testimony the father of one girl who was raped by the criminal gangs told how packs of young Kashmiri men linked to her abuser still turn up outside his home to intimidate the family.
One of the ways the grooming gangs were able to get away with their crimes for so long was due to a coordinated campaign of witness intimidation, which made the girls and their families too scared to speak out.
[...]
He added: “These groomers, these paedophiles are still running this town and the police are still doing what they were doing back in the day – nothing. Children in this town are at risk now and it’s appalling.”
[...]
In many instances the abuse is so open that neighbours in the town are aware it is going on.
But they say they feel powerless to act because of police indifference and the vice-like grip the criminal grooming gangs have achieved.
A concerned resident told Express.co.uk he regularly saw cars full of abusers kerb crawling in the area around his home, adding it is an open secret taxi drivers still target local schools at home time in the hope of picking up young girls.
The man – a former university lecturer – said he was “furious” grooming is still going on so openly despite the public outcry.
[...]
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